


30 Day OTP Challenge- Thundercracker/Skywarp

by orphan_account



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: 30 Day OTP Challenge, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 17:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 19,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1752356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>30 Days of fluffy Seekers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day One- Holding Hands

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to get back into writing and, if you've read anything of mine, you know I love fluff and I love Thundercracker/Skywarp. (One day I'll post something different! One day... but that day's not today.)
> 
> The theme of each day will be the title of the chapter, though I can't promise an update everyday. Also, I'm using a klik to equal about one minute here.
> 
> And, as always, all mistakes are my own.

"It's dark down here."

_Just ignore him._

"I'm cold."

_He'll stop._

"I'm bored!"

_He has to stop sometime._

"TC, I said I'm bored!"

_...He's not going to stop._

The blue jet sighed, glancing up to give his trinemate an unamused stare over the top of his datapad.

" _TeeeeeeeCeee_ -"

"I _know_ , Skywarp, but we've only been down here for ten kliks and haven't found a least half the items on this list," Thundercracker said, tapping the datapad. Starscream sent them both down to storage to gather supplies for Megatron's latest 'project'. Or rather, he sent Thundercracker to get supplies while Skywarp whined from the entrance. His trineleader probably just wanted to occupy Skywarp. When Skywarp was idle, he got bored, and when Skywarp was bored, things got dangerous.

Well, apparently Starscream wasn't as intelligent as he liked to claim since Skywarp was still idle and, even worse, still bored.

"But this's taking eons! Can't I leave while you finish this? C'mon, it's not like we both have to be stuck down here in this musty, little closet."

"Well, it _would_ go faster if you helped, like you were ordered to," Thundercracker pointed out, only to receive a pout from Skywarp.

"Here," Thundercracker held out the datapad, "go and get the next item on the list and bring it back to me."

Skywarp took the datapad, complete with an over dramatic sigh, and disappeared around one of the shelves. It wasn't long before Thundercracker heard some rustling and then, "Hey TC, do we need any explosives for this?"

"No, Skywarp, no explosives."

"Not even some gunpowder?"

" _No_ , Skywarp."

"...Are you sure?"

" _Skywarp_."

"Alright alright, sheesh," the purple Seeker said, reappearing around the corner, toting a small box tucked under his elbow. "Alright," he said brightly, "here ya go, one box of steel tubes."

Thundercracker took the box and squinted suspiciously at his trinemate's sudden cheery demeanor. "Alright," he said, "hand it over."

Skywarp dropped the smile. "Hand... what over?"

"You know what."

"I don't have anythin'!"

The blue Seeker held out a servo, putting the other one on his hip. He waited there like that, locked optics with Skywarp, until he was sure the other was gonna bolt. The purple Seeker froze; glanced at the door; then to Thundercracker; then to his servo, which waved at him impatiently; and sighed.

" _Fiiiine_ ," he said, handing over a bag of low-grade explosives.

" _All_ of it."

"You're no fun," Skywarp grumbled, removing three more bags he had tucked away in his subspace.

"Yeah yeah, I know."

"So, what's next on that list?" Skywarp asked. "Some power cells, right? I can get those." The jet turned to leave, but before he could get anywhere a servo on his wrist stopped him short.

" _Oh_ no, you're not trying that again." Thundercracker's servo slipped lower and intertwined with his trinemate's. "You're staying right next to me while I finish getting this list." He tugged his trinemate along who, when glanced at out of the corner of Thundercracker's optic, wore a slight smile as he followed, making Thundercracker think that maybe Starscream knew what he was doing after all.


	2. Day Two- Cuddling Somewhere

The Decepticons suffered another loss at the hands of the Autobots. It was, admittedly a frustrating time for everyone. Being their third loss that month and with their energon stocks far from secure, tensions were high for everyone, and Skywarp and Starscream were no exception.

  
Following the mission there had been a shouting match between the two, tossing around blame and terms like 'glitch,' 'useless,' and 'malfunction' like a hot energon cube. It took a shout and charged fusion canon from a fed-up Megatron to separate the fight Thundercracker couldn't, leaving the two Seekers to storm off in different directions down the hall.

  
The purple Seeker stomped into his shared room, barely waiting for the doors to swish open and admit him. "Primus fraggin' _dammit_!" He said angrily, administering a kick to the berth that damaged his pede more than it did the furniture. "I can't believe we lost another one."

  
Thundercracker followed behind his trinemate and leaned heavily on his desk. "I know, Skywarp," he sighed. "No one was happy with how today went."

  
The purple Seeker turned and paced from wall to wall, wings held stiffly upon his back. "But we almost had this one! Until Screamer fragged everything up again." He paused in his pacing, optics flicking to the floor. "Until _I_ fragged everything up," he said quietly. He looked to TC and renewed his pacing.

  
"Warp, you know that's not true."

  
"It _is_. Frag, I had one job and I screwed it up. All I had to do was watch the entrance while you and Screamer got the cubes, and I couldn't even do that."

  
"...Bumblebee's a small bot," Thundercracker reasoned, "anyone could've missed him." It wasn't true, of course, and Skywarp knew it. The pacing jet only spared enough time to give Thundercracker a frustrated look before silently turning back the wall.

  
Thundercracker sighed. Reaching down, he produced two highgrade cubes from a drawer in his desk and tossed one to Skywarp as he walked. "Come on," he said, taking a seat on the couch and patting the spot next to him, "just take a minute to relax."

  
Skywarp caught the cube and joined his trinemate on the couch. Folding his pedes up underneath himself he sipped at his drink moodily, dodging any conversation Thundercracker tried to strike up with him. Eventually the blue Seeker just gave up and sat in silence with Skywarp, both staring ahead at the dusty, blank T.V. screen.

"Screamer was right," Skywarp said, finally breaking the silence. Thundercracker rose an optic ridge. "About me," he supplied, "I _am_ a glitch."

  
"Warp-"

  
"No, I don't need you to sugarcoat things, TC. You and I both know I frag up more plans than any other 'Con. You an' Screamer are the only reasons I made it this far through the ranks in the first place. You two are the smart ones, everyone know _I'm_ the stupid one in the trine," Skywarp said with a grimace, "the useless one."

  
Thundercracker stopped and lowered his drink. Nudging his highgrade cube onto the table, he looped an arm around Skywarp's shoulder, tugging the Seeker to his cockpit. The purple Seeker limply obeyed, allowing his helm to rest on Thundercracker while his servos still clutched tightly at his cube. A servo on Skywarp's wing had his grimace fading while a couple of strokes got his frame to loosen up. Eventually his digits relaxed and he put the empty cube on the floor, allowing his servos to hug at Thundercracker instead. The patterns being traced along his wings had his optics flickering on and off, his systems slowing down.

"You know our trine wouldn't be complete without you, Skywarp."

  
The purple Seeker didn't answer. He didn't know if he believed that, but he didn't much want to contemplate the thought. For now, he was just gonna listen to Thundercracker's sparkbeat through his cockpit and try and get some recharge.


	3. Day Three- Gaming/Watching a Movie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon- Thundercracker liked the game Monopoly so he made a Cybertronian-sized version of it on datapads and renamed all the properties as Cybertronian cities.

Do. Not. Play. Board. Games. With. Thundercracker. The Seeker is good, like, crazy good. Or maybe Skywarp just sucked. Either way, he officially hated Monopoly now. Especially this turn. This turn was slag.

  
"Whaaaaat? Really?" Skywarp asked.

  
"That's right, now hand it over."

  
"But it costs 200 credits! That's ridiculous!"

  
"I don't pick the prices."

  
"Can't I, like, write you an IOU?"

  
"That's not how the game works, Skywarp."

  
"But I'm gonna go bankrupt!" Thundercracker's servo waved impatiently. "Fine," Skywarp huffed, stuffing the play-credits in Thundercracker's direction, the blue Seeker snorting in amusement. "What?" Skywarp asked defensively.

  
"You. It was your idea to play a game together in the first place, and now look at you." He gestured towards the Seeker who currently had his servos crossed, wings hiked up, and lip turned out in a pout, looking like a sparkling who'd just dropped his fifth energon cube and was denied another one.

  
"I didn't know you were gonna pick _this_."

  
"Well, you rejected my first choice of Cribbage."

  
"That game had math an' stuff in it; it'd be boring, trust me."

  
"Sure sure," Thundercracker said, waving his servo dismissively, "just take your next turn."

 

"Did you already..?"

  
"Free Parking," Thundercracker answered, smirking as he held up a wad of play-credits.

  
"You've gotta be kiddin' me! There's no way!"

  
"See for yourself," Thundercracker said smugly, gesturing towards the dice that counted up to six, leading the Seeker's little jet game piece straight to the 'Free Parking' space. Not that Skywarp knew where Thundercracker started off anyway. If he didn't know the Seeker better, he'd accuse him of cheating.

  
"Can't fraggin' believe this," Skywarp mumbled, swiping up the dice for his turn. Rolling them he counted, "One, two three, four..." he trailed off, risking a quick glance up at Thundercracker. "That roll hit your game piece, I gotta redo it. It doesn't count."

  
"Oh-ho, no, that counts as your turn and that puts you on," pause for dramatic effect and evil grin, "Vos. Looks like you owe me 400 credits." Skywarp groaned. "And," Thundercracker continued, "if I'm not mistaken, those are the _last_ of your credits too. Looks like I-"

  
A game piece whizzing by Thundercracker's helm interrupted him. Along with a stack of fake credits and another game piece and a couple datapads too.

  
"Oh slag!" Skywarp said stiffly, shooting out of his chair. "I must have bumped the table, my bad." He rubbed the back of his helm, wearing a sheepish grin. "Looks like we can't finish the game. 'S too bad. Guess I'll just head down to the rec room instead. See ya, TC!" The Seeker spun on his heel, making a hasty retreat towards to door, a hasty retreat that was cut off by a wince and a pair of digits pinching on his wing.

  
"Not quite, Skywarp. I think you're forgetting that I programmed these datapads to save all our game data," Thundercracker said, tapping one of the datapads. "And, according to this, you lost the game. And you know what that means." He held out a palm expectantly.

  
"Aw c'mon, TC, you're not really gonna make me do this are you? Can't I, like, write you an IOU?" Skywarp looked up hopefully, sighing as the blue Seeker didn't budge. "Can't fraggin' believe I lost my own bet," the purple Seeker grumbled, fishing around in his subspace. " _There_ , 100 credits," he said, slapping them down. "But next time _I'm_ picking the game."


	4. Day Four- On a Date

Thundercracker and Skywarp were alone, the whirring of each other's systems all they could hear. The lights were low, dimming their features and making their optics glow a more intense crimson. No one was coming to interrupt them.

That had to count for something, right?

Of course, all that _may_ have been canceled out by the fact that the two were sitting in a jail cell. And Skywarp was currently scrunched up on the floor while Thundercracker sat on the complete opposite side of the room. And the Seeker was glaring daggers at Skywarp. And the two of them were both covered in chipping, yellow paint. And- okay, yeah, all that stuff didn't count for anything. And the morning had gone so well, too...

* * *

"Hey, TC, can you hand me that tape?"

"Huh? Oh sure," said Thundercracker absently, barely sparing a glance up from his datapad. "Here."

"Thanks! Oh, and do you happen to have any purple paint lying around here?"

"No."

"What about yellow? We got any more yellow?"

"Yes, actually. I think there's some- wait." Thundercracker spun around in his chair. "Just what do you need all this for?" His optics narrowed, zeroing in on the metallic mess Skywarp was bent over. "Don't tell me this is for another one of your pranks. I told you to keep me out of those ever since that incident with Megatron's throne."

"Hey, c'mon, that throne one was hysterical!" Skywarp snickered to himself, only stopping when he realized Thundercracker wasn't laughing along. "Oh, don't worry about it! I have this one _aaaaall_ planned out, there's no way I can get caught!"

"Oh do you?" Thundercracker leaned back in his chair, crossing his servos. "Then why don't you tell me about this 'plan'?"

The purple Seeker turned to Thundecracker with half-shuttered optics, sticking out his nose smugly. "My plan," he began, "is to warp inside Soundwave's quarters while he's recharging and set off this paint bomb."

"...That's it?"

"Mmmhmm."

" _That's_ your big plan?"

"Yup~"

There was a lag as Thundercracker sat there, dumbly staring at Skywarp, his processor running through the conversation twice just to make sure he heard everything right. "Alright," he said finally, hoisting himself out of his chair, "I think I've heard enough, and you're definitely not doing this."

"Hey! Whaddya think you're doing?" Skywarp asked, hugging to paint bomb possessively as his trinemate advanced, looming over him like a disapproving sire.

Skywarp hopped up off the ground. "C'mon, TC, no need to be such a killjoy, loosen up," he said, nudging the jet in his side. "Oh, I know! Why don't you come with me?" The purple Seeker bounced on his pedes at the idea, quickly grabbing hold of Thundercracker's shoulder. "I just finished my bomb too, you ready?"

"Skywarp, no, don't you da-" _VOP_   "-re do this!" The blue Seeker blinked, waiting for his fuel tank to catch up with the rest of his frame and for the floor to stop trying to shake him off of it.

He looked around the quarters that most certainly weren't his, and spun on the giddy, purple Seeker. " _Skywarp, I told you_ -"

"Shhh!" Skywarp frantically hushed him, pointing towards a recharging figure on the berth. "Soundwave's still out, let's go." He waved Thundercracker on, making his way towards the berth.

"No, teleport me back," Thundercracker hissed. "Skywarp, did you hear me? _Skywarp_... tch." He followed behind his trinemate, watching as he crawled all around the room.

"I can't believe you dragged me into this," Thundercracker rumbled.

"Oh c'mon, you'll enjoy it, just relax."

"And you think this color bomb is actually going to work?"

"Sure sure," called Skywarp, his voice muffled by the berth he was poking around under. "I used this model dozens of times at the Academy." He peeked his helm out with a smirk. "If I made it properly, it should end up painting his whole room yellow too. Now if I could just find somewhere to plant it..."

Thundercracker glanced at the recharging Soundwave and hesitated. He really shouldn't... But he was already involved... Soundwave could wake up at any moment... But it's not like he could just leave now... Oh, why the frag not?

"Well, don't plant it under there, that won't do anything. It will be much more effective here," Thundercracker said, pointing to a tall table at the end of the berth.

"Oh hey, yeah, you're right." Skywarp smirked, planting the bomb. "And I thought you wanted nothing to do with this," He purred.

"I'm merely pointing out a strategic downfall in your plan."

"Heh, 'strategic downfall', sure."

"'Ey! Whaddya think you're doin' in Soundwave's room?!" A voice interrupted them from the corner of the room, emanating from a knee-high, meddlesome, little silhouette.

After that... well, it's hard to say exactly. ~~Skywarp~~  Someone got startled by Rumble and knocked the color bomb to the floor, setting it off on impact. It didn't take much to identify Thundercracker and Skywarp as the perpetrators, considering they were both covered in yellow paint. Ramjet walked in on them frantically trying to scrub it off in the washracks after warping outta there, the little snitch. And now, here they were, sitting in a jail cell, Skywarp scrunched up on the floor on one side and Thundercracker glaring at him from the other, both still covered in chipping, yellow paint.

"You gotta admit," Skywarp spoke up, tentatively breaking the silence, "Soundwave _did_ look pretty funny when he shot out of bed like that. For a mech without a mouth you wouldn't think he could look so shocked."

It was dim and Skywarp could have imagined it, but he swore he saw the other Seeker break a smile.

"When we finally get released from here I am locking up all our paint," Thundercracker rumbled.

Okay, yeah, maybe Skywarp just imagined it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are you talking about? Getting arrested with your trinemate TOTALLY counts as a date.


	5. Day Five- Kissing

"Just a quick flight?"

  
"No, Skywarp, I'm busy."

  
"That's what you said yesterday!"

  
"I was busy yesterday too."

  
Skywarp flopped against the couch with a frustrated sigh. He tried all day to pry Thundercracker from his desk, but every time he asked the Seeker would whip out a new datapad he had to work on. Primus, how anyone could sit still that long, let alone stay focused on their work, Skywarp would never know. And he didn't want to either, that sounded boring.

  
"C'mon, this isn't because of that paint bomb thing, is it?"

  
Thundercracker stayed silent, his wings hiking up on his back and his digits digging into his datapad a little too tightly. Okay, Skywarp was just gonna take that as a 'yes.' Thundercracker _had_ been giving him the cold shoulder ever since they were released; he was practically welded to that desk with his nose always stuck in some report. Granted, they were only released yesterday, but it still drove Skywarp up a wall.

  
"Hey, you can't still be mad about that," Skywarp reasoned. "I got us outta there, didn't I?"

  
"Yes, you did," Thundercracker said evenly. "You warped us out of there prematurely," he turned over his shoulder to glare at his trinemate, "which earned us _another_ night in detention, this time with our servos and pedes cuffed."

  
"Okay, maybe not my best idea," Skywarp said with an apologetic grin, but Thundercracker just eyed the display, unimpressed, and turned back to his desk with a scoff. The purple Seeker jumped off the couch, bending over the corner of his trinemate's desk. "But you can't just sit here all day!"

  
"I can when there's work to be done."

  
"I could help ya out?"

  
Thundercracker laughed, the first time he so much as smiled since they left the brig, and Skywarp grinned at the change, until he heard what the Seeker had to say, that is. "Hah, thanks, but no thanks. I don't think you could help with this."

  
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Skywarp crossed his arms, sticking his nose in the air. "I've been a 'Con as long as you, I know what I'm doin'."

  
"Please, Skywarp, I don't think I've ever even seen you write a report before."

  
"I've done one before! On that one on that one mission." He waved his servo, searching for the word. "You know, with the water an' dam an' stuff?"

  
"You mean our raid on the hydroelectric power plant?"

  
"Yeah, that one!"

  
"Yes, I remember that. I also remember Megatron approaching me and asking for a rewrite of the entire report."

 

"C'mon, it wasn't _that_ bad!"

  
"You substituted 'Tomato Can' and 'Dandelion' in for Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's designations the whole report, and I don't think the phrase 'And Optimus Prime came and, like, fragged everything up,' is an adequate account of what happened," Thundercracker said, shaking his helm as he quietly shook with laughter at the memory, starting with small chuckles that grew into a rumbling guffaw.

"Hmph, it wasn't that funny," Skywarp mumbled.

  
Thundercracker pushed out his chair, gathering up his stack of datapads, still snorting to himself in amusement. "Hey!" Skywarp stopped him before he could get out the door. "Where are you goin'?"

  
"To turn these reports into Megatron and to discuss the preliminaries of our next raid plan." Skywarp dropped his optics, disappointed. "But after that," Thundercracker continued, "I'll come back and we can go on that flight." He lifted the purple Seeker's chin, giving a light peck on the lips. "Happy?"

  
"Well, I guess I can accept that," Skywarp said, his nonchalant act ruined the bubbly grin he wore and the excited bounce of his pedes.

  
Thundercracker turned, grinning to himself. "I'll see you then, Skywarp."


	6. Day Six- Wearing Each Other's Clothes

Armor held an important place in a Decepticon's life, going beyond keeping them save in battle to serve as a reminder of why they were created and what they were fighting for. Every soldier wore it virtually constantly, to the point where one'd feel incomplete and vulnerable without it. To strip down and remove one's armor for someone showed no small amount of intimacy and trust placed in the other mech.

  
"Hey, I look like you!"

  
"Skywarp, give me my shoulder plate back."

  
"Hold on, hold on, I wanna see somethin'."

  
Thundercracker sighed, watching the Seeker dart around the room, half of his protoform exposed from the night before and the other half covered in patches of blue armor. All that remained of his original armor was the black of his wings. He swept up the rest of the blue pieces, attaching them to himself. Giving his shoulder a few experimental turns, he spun on Thundercracker, standing proudly with his servos on his hips.

  
"So, whaddya think?" He asked, turning to show off all sides of his frame. "Can't even tell it's me, huh?"

  
"Well, I must admit, that is some appealing armor," Thundercracker said, grinning jokingly, "but I doubt you could pass as me."

  
"What? I could _totally_ pass as you!" Skywarp strutted up to Thundercracker, eyeing the Seeker up and down. He proudly straightened his backstrut, raised his shoulders, and protruded his cockpit, mimicking Thundercracker's pose as best he could. Scrunching up his face in an over exaggerated sour expression, he cleared his vocalizer, forcing it to go as low as it could (though it still paled in comparison to Thundercracker's deep rumble). "No, Skywarp," he imitated, "I can't help you with that prank. I'm far too busy rusting here, doing absurd amounts of reports for Megatron and having no fun," he said, adding a rumble of his engines at the end for effect.

  
"Ha. Ha." Thundercracker monotoned, rolling his optics.

  
Skywarp smirked, dropping the act. His frame curved, one hip sticking out to catch his servo, and he returned to the bouncy, flowing pose that normally accompanied him. "Not bed, eh? I bet I could convince some 'Cons I was you."

  
Thundercracker snorted. "Don't be ridiculous, no one's _that_  dull-witted."

"Oh yeah? 50 credits says your wrong."

  
Thundercracker raised an optic ridge at Skywarp, who stuck out a servo. "Alright, Skywarp. Go find a group of 'Cons. If they don't catch on in ten kliks, you win." He took the outstretched servo and they shook on it.

  
"Hah, you are so on." And with that, the Seeker disappeared in a flash of purple light. As soon as he was gone, Thundercracker sauntered over to his desk, leaning his hip against the edge as he patiently watched the empty spot that formerly held his trinemate.

  
"And three, two, one..."

  
_-VOP-_

  
"Oh, back so soon?" Thundercrack asked, lips stretching into a smug smile. "What happened? Don't tell me you lost the bet already."

  
"Yeah, I lost already," Skywarp mumbled, ducking his helm and crossing his arms.

  
"Oh, that's a shame. What gave it away? Was it your voice? Your stance? You glaringly mismatched black and purple wings?"

  
"No, all of 'em said they saw me warp in an' automatically knew it was me." Skywarp cursed under his breath. It was then that something clicked in his processor, and his helm shot up with accusing optics. "Hey, wait! You _knew_ my wings didn't match, and you let me leave like that. That voids the bet. We needa do it again, it wasn't a fair chance!"

  
"Sorry, but we never specified any rules like that. You still owe me 50 credits."

  
"No fraggin' way!"

  
"Alright then, I'll just help myself to a couple of your shuttlegrade cubes. I think that should even us out."

  
"You don't even _like_ shuttlegrade cubes!"

  
"That's true, but they're valuable for trading, being so rare and all."

  
Skywarp locked optics with Thundercracker, who smirked back at him in a silent challenge. "Fine then," Skywarp huffed, "plopping himself down on the couch. "Then I guess _I'll_ just keep your armor on for the rest of the day."

  
That got the Seeker's attention, his smirk dropping off his face. "I have monitor duty in 30 kliks."

  
"My my, that's gonna be awkward, isn't it?" Skywarp purred. He met Thundercracker's optics again, this time with the smug smile draped across his faceplates.

  
* * *

  
Skywarp lounged back on the couch, absently flicking through the channels. Nothing captured his attention. Apparently human television turned the slag in the middle of the day, because he couldn't stand to watch one program for more than 20 astroseconds. Besides, something much more entertaining was occupying his processor. He glanced towards the door, checking his internal chronometer as he did. Should be any astrosecond now...

  
_-swoosh-_

  
Oh, there he was~

  
Skywarp sat up, setting the remote aside to greet his trinemate as he stepped through the door, a scowl etched on his faceplates. "Bad day at monitor duty?" Skywarp asked, his concerned voice canceled out by the satisfied smirk he wore.

  
"Shut the frag up," Thundercracker rumbled, sinking down onto the edge of the berth. "It was bad enough with all the stares I was getting, but then the Coneheads walked in halfway through my shift." He squirmed, removing the purple and black armor that covered his entire frame, save for his blue wings. "And I'm still expecting my 50 credits, especially after this," he muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And for those of you who read my other fics, yes this prompt has inspired another story of mine, heh.


	7. Day Seven- Cosplaying

The rain came down in lazy, fat droplets while grey clouds splotched the sky. Chilly air nipped at all who ventured outside and covered the windows and yards in a light frost. The streets sat damp and empty. By all accounts it was a lazy day, perfect for staying inside and lounging around. Even the sun refused to come out.

  
Thundercracker perched at his desk, preserving through a few reports, every so often flicking his wings restlessly. Skywarp sprawled out on the couch behind him, taking the lack of activity to lazily go through his belongings. He picked up a datapad, turned it on, snickered at its contents, tossed it back in the corner where it came from, and repeated the process. He came to one item: a musty rolled up piece or cloth. Unrolling it, two small pieces of paper fluttered into his lap, and he broke into a grin. "Hey, TC," he called, stirring the Seeker from his work. "You remember that old, cheesy show they use to run back in Vos? The one about that invincible Seeker?"

  
"The one all the sparklings and new sparks used to watch? Yes, I remember," Thundercracker said, swinging an arm over the back of his chair. "Why?"

  
The purple Seeker grinned, holding up the cloth. "No way. You have a Super Seeker costume?" Thundercracker snorted.

  
"Hey, Super Seeker was the best!" Skywarp tied the cloth around his waist, a belt that sported the faded red and blue double S. Gathering the two pieces of paper, he attached the stickers to his faceplates, mimicking the jagged, navy markings the old hero wore. Leaping up, he stood, stance wide, servos on his hips, and bellowed, "Stop right there!" He swung an arm out dramatically, clenching his servo. "You're no match against Super Seeker!"

  
Thundercracker rolled his optics, shaking his helm as he returned to his datapad. "What's this?" Skywarp sauntered over, slamming a servo down on Thundercracker's desk. "Disrespecting your city's hero?"

  
"No no, of course not, but really, Skywarp,  _Super Seeker_?"

  
"Oh?" Skywarp crossed his arms defensively. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

  
"He wasn't all that great of a hero."

  
"Pfshhh!"

  
"And you look a bit ridiculous impersonating him."

Skywarp turned his back on the blue Seeker with a huff. "Hmph, what would you know?" He mumbled.

  
"Besides," Thundercracker continued, ducking his helm as he reached into a drawer, "we both know it was the Silver Bullet that was the _real_ hero."

  
Skywarp spun around, grin slowly growing as he found Thundercracker with a silver, shimmering emblem stuck to his cockpit. "Oh, no fraggin' way," Skywarp said. Straightening up he adopted the pose from before. "The Silver Bullet is no match for me, Super Seeker!"

  
Thundercracker stood, proudly protruding his chest. "Please, I could easily outfight you."

  
"Oh, we'll see about that~"


	8. Day Eight- Shopping

It takes a lot to get Skywarp overcharged-- that falling out of bar stools, getting lost on the way to the door, tripping over invisible table corners kind of overcharged. His ability to handle highgrade was practically legend, only whispered about in hushed tones by panicked bartenders after hours. It was even rumored he once out drank a shuttle. Said shuttle was not available to give a rebuttal, though, as he was passed out on the floor. As a result of this wondrous gift, mechas never offered to take the Seeker out drinking. More often than not, they'd end up sprawled across the floor, bled dry of all credits, and accompanied by a now idle, purple Seeker, and you know what they say about an idle Skywarp.

Astrotrain, being a space craft, was one of the few mechas aboard the Nemesis who could keep up with Skywarp, and keep up he did. The two dwindled away the night terrorizing towns and downing shuttlegrade cubes, the highgrade just enough to alight their circuits with little sparks of energy that tingled through their frames. As the night wound down, the two returned. With a pop and cloak of purple light, the two appeared in Skywarp's quarters, howling with laughter, their voices echoing around the dim, empty quarters.

"Hah, out-flying those pathetic Earth pilots is _always_ great!" Skywarp said, a devious smirk on his lips.

  
"Tell me about it. They're worse than those clunky new sparks!"

  
The two's laughter eventually died down, leaving the them to sip at their drinks and occasionally snort in amusement. Skywarp flopped against the couch while Astrotrain lounged back on Thundercracker's desk, the metal letting out a groan, bending to support the extra weight. He took another swig of his highgrade cube, lowering it with a satisfied sigh. "'S nice to finally have you out again. We 'aven't done somethin' like this in a while. Thundercracker's got you on a short leash, huh?"

  
"Oh, ha ha." Skywarp said, playfully tossing an empty highgrade cube at the shuttle, who grinned and ducked out of its way, the cube bouncing harmlessly to the floor.

  
"Really, bro, you better watch yourself. Before you know it, you'll be trapped. Those committed relationships are only trouble, like cuttin' off your wings."

  
"Pfshhh," Skywarp scoffed, "please, that'd never happen."

  
"Hey, you've been optin' out on some golden opportunities to stay in with him. That's how it starts. Soon he'll start expecting more of ya. You'll be forbidden from gettin' with other mechas at all, probably won't even be able to see _me_."

  
"I told ya, that ain't gonna happen! I'm a free mech." Astrotrain just rose an optic ridge. "C'mon, there's _nothin'_ goin' on between me an' TC anyway." Skywarp insisted with a huff. "Drop it."

  
"I'm just sayin'. Cuttin' off your wings, bro, cutting of your wings."

  
"Ah, just shut the frag up and drink another cube," Skywarp said, lobbing one at the shuttle, adding a little more power than strictly necessary this time. The cube went flying towards the Astrotrain, who put his servos the grab it, the drink only catching the edge of his digit. Instead, it bounced to the side, soaring up and over the shuttle's shoulder, colliding with Thunder's desk, its journey coming to a shattering end. 

Skywarp froze as the sound cut through the air, his wings stiffening. In an instant he was on the desk, picking up the cube and the crushed, glass remains underneath. "Frag," he muttered. "Frag frag frag! TC is gonna have my head when he sees this!"

  
"What is it?" Astrotrain asked, brushing a few glass specks off the cube and taking a sip.

  
"An old statue of Thundercracker's. It used to be the Vosnian skyline."

  
"Eh, never saw the appeal in things like that, just took up space. Always preferred pictures, actually."

  
"Well,  _Thundercracker_ saw the appeal," said Skywarp, his voice growing frantic as he tried to fit the shards back together. Eventually he let them drop onto the desk, giving up with a sigh. "It's no use, the pieces are too small."

  
"So get 'im a new one if it's really that important."

Skywarp had scoffed at Astrotrain's suggestion then, but, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like the only option. Thundercracker _knew_ , Skywarp comm.ed him and he knew. He tried to covertly find out where Thundercracker got the thing and gauge how angry he'd be if he found out it was broken. Skywarp guessed it'd be somewhere in the "Starscream on a bad day" range, but he was way off. Actually, the Seeker wasn't mad at all. Skywarp expected yelling, cursing, even some name calling, but all he got was a defeated sigh, a 'Don't worry about it,' and a click as the comm. call disconnected.

  
And now, here Skwarp was, fidgeting in Starscream's doorway, as his trineleader wore that know-it-all, self-satisfied smirk.

  
"And what did you frag up _this_ time?" The Seeker asked, his voice far too amused for the occasion.

  
"Nothin'," Skywarp mumbled.

  
Starscream scoffed. "Please, I can practically smell it on you." Eyeing the Seeker as he went, he stalked forward, servos held behind his back. "What is it? How did you tick off Thundercracker now?"

  
"I told you, it's nothin'."

  
"Fine," Starscream sighed, turning his back. "If you won't tell me, I can't help you. I guess Thundercracker will just stay mad at you." He turned his helm, just enough to peek at Skywarp out of the corner of his optic. "Wonder how long it will be until he finally gets fed-up."

  
"Alright, alright." Starscream smirked. "TC had a this statue of Vos on his desk and it... got smashed the other day." Starscream took a step away threateningly. "Okay, _I_ smashed it, on _accident_ , and now I really needa find a new one, and you're the only Seeker I could think to ask."

  
"So that's it, is it? Honestly, I'm just surprised you haven't brought down the whole base yet, the klutz you are. Now, I would _gladly_ give you an extra statue if I had one," Starscream placed a servo over his spark, feigning distress, "but unfortunately I've grown rather attached to all the Vosnian sculptures I own. I'm not sure I can part with them."

  
"Tch, right. Dunno why I even came to you in the first place. " Skywarp turned to leave when a blue servo planted itself on the door.

  
"I might, however," continued Starscream, "be _persuaded_ to let go of one of my statues."

  
Skywarp narrowed his optics warily. "What's this gonna cost me?"

  
"Oh, nothing much." Starscream removed his servo, using it instead to brush some invisible dust of his shoulder. "But I _am_ going to rather busy soon and could use someone to cover my shifts for a while. How does, say, the next six months sound?"

  
" _Six months_? You've gotta be kiddin' me!"

  
"Or you could always return empty-servoed, your choice."

  
Skywarp grit his denta, biting back the response he wanted to give, and instead settling on a pathetic-sounding, "Fine."

  
Starscream's face broke into a big, faux-sweet grin. "Excellent! I knew you'd see it my way! But, Skywarp," he said, brushing an arm around the Seeker's shoulder, leading him back into the room, "there is just a _few_ modifications I want to make to our deal..."

* * *

It was late, the sun already well below the horizon by the time the blue Seeker stepped into his quarters, not that it mattered. With the Decepticon base sunk under the ocean, day and night flowed together almost seamlessly. Thundercracker flicked on the light, giving his empty quarters a cursory look. Both the couch and berth sat barren and neglected. He sighed, it figured. Skywarp was probably avoiding him after what happened, waiting until he could sneak back in unnoticed. Wouldn't be the first time.

  
He lightly tossed a fresh batch of datapads on his desk, then thought better of it and went to straighten them out, when a flash caught his optic. Looking up, there sat a small sculpture of Vos, complete with tiny Seeker figures and glazed over windows, painted orange for the rising sun. He picked it up, half-expecting to find some sort of note attached, but found nothing.  He turned the statue of in his servos. It wasn't his sculpture, not by a long shot, but Thundercracker grinned, nonetheless. He carefully set it down, positioning it precisely in the thin, faded outline that marked the resting place of his former statue. Looking it over, he smiled, satisfied, and sat down to work on those datapads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's not a lotta Cybertronian-sized stores on Earth, but, hey, "bargaining" with your trineleader's the next best thing, right?


	9. Day Nine- Hanging Out With Friends

After bonding, each trinemate takes up a certain role to keep the trine running smoothly and efficiently. Skywarp was designated the role of gamma, third in command, and, as such, it was his duty to make sure everything progressed seamlessly within his trine. He needed to keep up communications between the trinemembers, make sure everyone stayed on the same page, and, most important, help maintain positive relationships between trinemembers. Essentially, his job was to make sure the trine wasn't trying to rip out each other's throats. That meant doing whatever necessary to keep the trine on friendly terms with each other, including allotting an afternoon aside for some good, old quality time.

Some might call Mario Kart an unorthodox way to go about this task, but Skywarp would say they just have no imagination. And, hey, it took a _lot_ of work to convince his trinemates to play, what with Thundercracker being such a stickler about his work and Starscream being... well, Starscream. But now they could all enjoy themselves together.

"What the _frag_ was that?" Starscream screeched, his character tumbling to a halt on the screen. His helm snapped towards Skywarp accusingly.

"A blue shell," Skywarp said, meeting his trineleader's look with gleaming optics. "It tracks down whoever's in first and demolishes 'em."

"Tch." Starscream scowled. "I have spiked armor upon my back, I should be able to deflect such a weak attack."

"Yeah, well, this ain't exactly realistic, Screamer," Skywarp said, ignoring the threatening glare coming from Starscream at the nickname. Furrowing his brow, Skywarp stuck his glossa out, and forcefully mashed a button on his controller. "Come on, come on, come on," he muttered, leaning closer to the screen. "Hah! Yes! Tripped 'im up with my banana trail!" Skywarp whooped. On screen, his character whizzed down the colorful raceway of Rainbow road, hurtling passed the slow-going motorcycle of his trinemate. The Seeker spared a quick glance to side. Beside him, Thundercracker sat, straight and proper (as always), coolly wielding his controller. His wings nonchalantly repositioned themselves on his back. On screen, his character slowly cruised around the corner, then continued on in an almost computer-like precise path down the lane, only wavering to swerve out of the way of another player, who was almost certainly lapping him by now.

"Uh, ya know, TC, stayin' in between the lines ain't part of the game."

"I know," Thundercracker said.

Skywarp blinked, expecting an explanation. The blue Seeker simply decelerated and rounded another corner. 

"Sooo, you might wanna go a little faster than that; you're never gonna win that way."

"This method is better than driving recklessly and falling into a trap."

"Riiiight," Skywarp said, turning back to his screen, "forgot you weren't really one for speed games."

The music picked up in intensity, Skywarp's player crossing over the finish line. "Oh-ho, alright, final lap!" The purple Seeker repositioned himself until he practically hung off the edge of the couch, leaning forward in anticipation.

"Move," Starscream growled, "your wing is digging into my shoulder." A rough shove had the Seeker toppling over and into Thundercracker, who grunted in discomfort.

"Hey" Skywarp shouted. "watch it! You're gonna slag up my lead!"

He shifted, flexing his wing back and out of the way, but not without a stealthy glossa stuck out at his trieleader, who replied with a condescending "I saw that, you moron."

Back on screen, the track sped onward. Only a couple more turns to go and Skywarp would claim victory of the round. He couldn't exactly win the whole tournament at this point, but it'd still be worth it to rub it in Starscream's faceplates, just once. He activated a mushroom, sending his character hurtling down the track, the ground a blur of brightly colored tiles. Now, all he had to do was grab this last item box and it was a straightaway to the bronze medal and a huffy, jealous trineleader. He curved to the side, lining up with a red, spinning mystery box; strained his analogue stick as far forward as it would go; and... exploded into the sky?

The mystery box bunced his character into the air, his player crashing down in a pathetic pile of metal, dust, and failed ambitions.

"What the frag was that?" Skywarp practically shot out of his seat as three players sped right past him. He looked to Starscream in disbelief, the Seeker wearing a self-congratulatory grin.

" _You_ ," Skywarp growled. "You planted a fake mystery box behind that real one, _you_ lost me the race!"

Starscream simply reclined back on the couch, making a point of lowering his controller to his lap, the golden '1st' flashing on his screen mockingly. "Oh hush and just finish the race before you loose to Thundercracker."

Skywarp scowled, but ultimately did as told, crossing the finish his line to earn himself an unimpressive fifth place and fourth overall in the tournament. The race stopped before Thundercracker finished his third lap around.

The screen faded, and triumphant music sounded. Skywarp had half a processor to skip the whole ceremony, but a servo placed on his controller prevented him from pressing any buttons. "Uh uh uh, don't skip this. I want to see my victory lap," Starscream said flashing his denta in a smirk. The tri-colored Seeker sat back and relished every second of it (especially the pout and envious glares it enticed from Skywarp), prolonging things until the very last pixel faded to black. Only then did he allow Skywarp to change screens.

"About fraggin' time," Skywarp muttered. "Now," he brightened up and clapped his servos together, "how about a different game?"

"I don't know," Starscream drawled. "I rather enjoyed this one."

"I dunno, I just think it's time we switch gears and play somethin' else."

"Need I remind you the only reason Thundercracker and I are playing this game in the first place is because of _your_ insistence on the matter? Rather rude of you to go changing things on us so soon, wouldn't you say?"

The purple Seeker just opened his mouth wordlessly, turning desperately to Thundercracker for help.

"He does have a point, Skywarp," Thundercracker said.

The purple jet sagged against the couch in defeat. "Fine, we'll play another one of these. What this time, Grand Prix or versus?"


	10. Day Ten- With Animal Ears

"I'm dumbfounded this passed as one of our plans, it's more ridiculous than the griffin idea." The blue Seeker muttered, ducking further behind his rocky outcropping, less for protection and more to hide his appearance, his horns still poking out over the top. Skywarp sat beside him, tugging experimentally at his own, shorter, sharper horns. Both were chosen for the mission because of Seekers' innate ability to move with grace, agility, and, above all else, stealth (though Thundercracker _tried_ to explain that ability was solely in aeronautical movement), and because all other 'Cons mysteriously disappeared when Megatron went looking for volunteers.

  
Now the two had been stuck with the task of camouflaging themselves to look like Oregon wildlife, which basically consisted of some brown paint, synthetic fur, and disproportionate elk and mountain goat horns fit for Thundercracker and Skywarp respectively. Supposedly it'd help them blend in so they could spy on the Autobots, who decided to gather at the bottom of a rocky hill today.

  
"Don't you, like, make all our plans, though?" Skywarp asked.

  
"I _advise_ ," Thundercracker corrected sourly, "but whether or not my suggestions are taken into account are Megatron's decision."

  
"So the purple griffin?"

  
"Not mine."

  
"Well, that thing actually coulda worked, if we ever got to try it."

  
"No, it couldn't have."

  
Skywarp shrugged and lifted his helm just enough to peer over the rock, still scratching at his horns periodically and twitching his wings uncomfortably. Little information could be gleaned from their reconnaissance. The Autobots mostly just played around with their human and mindlessly chatted about Earth slag, like that museum thing or some talentless band of squishies, nothing the two could report to Megatron about.

  
"Hey, wait," Skywarp hissed, flapping his servo to grab Thundercracker's attention, "what was that they just said? Was that your name? I think they're talking about us!"

  
"What? I didn't hear anything like- ow!" Thundercracker grunted as his horn caught on the side of the rock. "I can't move in these cumbersome things, they only get in the way. For frag's sake, we'd be more successful without these costumes on."

  
Skywarp snickered. "Aw, c'mon, TC, it's not all bad, you do make a cute, squishie Earth creature. Look at your little ears," Skywarp cooed, reaching out a servo to pat Thundercracker on the helm, a servo the Seeker promptly swatted down.

  
"Now is not the time to be messing around like that."

  
"I'm just sayin', you did get the better costume. At least you got those cool horns, mine are just little nubs." Skywarp patted his helm, sadly. "Why are they even there?"

  
"Skywarp, if you're not going to focus at least _be quiet_ so I can," Thundercracker snapped. "The sooner we gather some usable information, the sooner we can leave and remove these costumes."

  
Skywarp spun on Thundercracker, who turned on him, flaring his wings out threateningly. "Hey, I _am_ focused! 'S not my fault all the Autobots like to do is frag around all afternoon!"

  
"Or maybe they don't, but we missed all the valuable information thanks to your incessant chatter."

  
" _My_ incessant chatter? What about you?"

  
" _Me_?"

  
"Yes you, you've been just as bad as me!"

  
"Are you two gonna sit there bickering like an old married couple all day?" Two Seeker helms (well, now a moose and goat head) simultaneously snapped to side, finding a grinning, red Lamborghini, standing at the foot of the hill, servo propped on his hip.

  
"It's gettin' pretty old," Sideswipe called again. "Wanna knock it off already? Listening to your voice all afternoon is making me feel sick, Skyaft."

  
Skywarp practically shot to his pedes. "'Ey! We ain't an old married couple!"

  
"Well well, _someone's_ touchy about their relationship. What happened? Did Thundercracker there dump you? Not surprising. Who'd go for a clunky, uncoordinated thing like that?" Sideswipe said, flicking his wrist towards Skywarp, sticking his glossa out and srucnhing up his nose in disgust.

  
"You wanna say that to my faceplates, Tomato Can?"

  
"You're the coward squattin' behind a rock!"

  
With the help of his pede turbines, Skywarp propelled himself up and over the boulder, landing on the other side with a heavy thud. He growled, stomping his way towards the sniggering Lamborghini. "We'll see which one of us is unattractive when I'm done with ya!"

"Please, you can't even put a dent in me, rust bucket~"

"I'll show you, groundpounder!"

"Oh for Primus' sake," Thundercracker mumbled, burying his hem in his servos. "That's it, I'm heading back to base."


	11. Day Eleven- Wearing Kigurumis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I just gotta say I'm not 100% sure what a kigurumi is, but when I searched it I found a lot of images like this one,
> 
> https://www.japanesegiftmarket.com/images/categories/KigurumiExample-4.jpg
> 
> so I hope this is close enough to the giant robot equivalent of a kigurumi...

Skywarp swooped to the side, banking until the tip of his wing cut through the cloud below him. He dipped lower, engulfing half his wing in the cloud. After wearing that restrictive costume all day, he relished the sensation of the mist rushing over his senors. He had long ago striped out of his goat camouflage, ditching on top of some hill in who-knows-where. All the rocks here looked the same to him anyhow, he just needed to get that thing off so he could finally get in the air. He hadn't been all day, and it was driving him batty. Plus, flying always helped clear his processor, the sky instantly washing away all thoughts that weren't ' _go faster_ '.

  
Skywarp pulled out of the cloud, vapor trailing behind him. Bright shades of gold and orange colored the horizon, ascending with the sun, cuing Skywarp that he should probably head back to base now, not that his absence would be all that unusual. Dipping down, he transformed, the rocky terrain blurring into the metallic background of his quarters, where he lightly landed down on two pedes. On the couch, datapad in hand, his trinemate glanced up at his arrival.

  
"Finally decided to come back? What happened, you were gone all night?"

  
Skywarp shrugged, flopping down next to Thundercracker. "Nothin' really, just went flying for a bit." He hugged his wings closer to his back, kicking up his internal heating systems a few notches. "Frag, it's cold in here, what happened?"

  
Thundercracker scooted over to make room for the Seeker and shook his helm. "I don't know. The heating systems are malfunctioning around the whole ship. Apparently no one can figure out what went wrong, though I doubt anyone's truly trying."

  
"Jeez, you can practically see our vents in here." Skywarp suddenly smirked, elbowing his trinemate in the side. "Hey, it's like we're back in the academy all over again!"

  
Thundercracker grinned and rolled his optics. "Right, because I need a repeat of all _that_. Now, what happened with you and Sideswipe yesterday?"

  
"Aw yeah, Sunstreaker showed up and ruined all the fun before I could do anything. Had to find somethin' else to do. Hey, we gotta any cubes around here?"

  
Thundercracker motioned to the table. "It's your energon ration from last night."

  
"Hey, thanks for pickin' that up for me." Skywarp grabbed the cube, replacing it with his pedes as he propped them on the table.

  
Thundercracker suppressed a sigh and the urge to knock the pedes onto the floor where they belonged, though he did shoot the purple Seeker an (ignored) disapproving glare. "I'm surprised you left, you looked ready to take Sideswipe's helm off."

  
"Well, he _was_ insultin' me, thought I'd teach him a lesson for that."

  
"It was no worse than what he usually does."

  
Skywarp gave a noncommittal shrug and continued drinking.

  
Thundercracker dropped his datapad to look at his trinemate seriously a moment. "Are you sure? You seemed really slagged off back there."

  
"It's _nothin'_ , TC, just forget about it already."

  
The Seeker frowned, unconvinced, but returned to typing on his datapad. He shifted around, tucking his arms and wings closer to his body, and Skywarp could hear the quiet hum of his internal heating system kicking on.

  
"Oh yeah, that reminds me, I've got a surprise for yoooou," Skywarp singsonged excitedly, rummaging in his subspace.

  
Thundercracker froze mid-type and looked towards Skywarp warily. "What is it?" he asked hesitantly. Anything the Seeker was that excited about was never good. Last time Skywarp uttered those words his 'big surprise' was his trashed room and a pile of luggage waiting in Thundercracker's quarters. The time before that it was an embarrassing tape of Thundercracker he traded from Starscream. Before that it was a ridiculous new design added to his paintjob. Before that it was... well, you get the idea.

  
"Oh c'mon, TC, don't give me that look. This one's a good one, I promise! Now, if I could just find it... Ahah, there is is~" He triumphantly pulled out a fluffy, brown cloth, rolled into a ball. "It's a blanket," Skywarp declared proudly, "for you!" He held out a servo, offering the gift.

  
Thundercracker hesitated, expecting some awful twist to be added at the end. When there wasn't one, he reached out and grabbed the blanket, carefully unfurling it over his legs. "Uh, thanks, Warp. This is actually really nice-" He cut off there as he held the gift up to examine it, the rest of the it unrolling to show itself. He snapped his helm towards Skywarp, glaring. "I can't believe it. This is what you were out doing all last night, wasn't it?"

  
Skywarp, who had been quietly trying to hold in his amusement burst into laughter, slapping a servo on his leg. "Wait, wait, you gotta put it on first." He kneeled on the couch, taking the blanket out of Thundercracker's servos to drape it around his shoulders. He grabbed the hood and pulled it over the scowling Seeker's helm, revealing an obviously home-made elk head, complete with eyes drawn on with marker and haphazardly glued on horns.

"Since I know you loved your costume yesterday so much, I made you this!"

  
"Oh for Primus' sake," Thundercracker mumbled, rubbing his forehelm. "This isn't funny, Warp."

  
"Then why are you smiling?" Skywarp teased, poking his trinemate in the side.

Thundercracker just shook his helm. "I can't believe it," he repeated.

"Well," Skywarp purred, pulling Thundercracker's datapad aside, "if you don't like it, you can always use _me_ to stay warm." The purple Seeker crawled into Thundercracker lap, gleefully throwing a pair of servos around his neck. "And don't worry, the door's locked. No one's gonna walk in on us this time."

  
"Oh, frag you," Thundercracker said jokingly, wrapping a servo around Skywarp's waist.


	12. Day Twelve- Making Out

Thundercracker was a mech of order, a mech of structure and routine and everything having a place. He followed an identicle routine every day, and, after spending millions of years with the mech, Skywarp picked up on that routine. He could easily predict precisely where the Seeker would be and when, and that's exactly where he wouldn't be.

Take today, for example. Thundercracker had the early shift of monitor duty, that meant he would wake up one hour before his shift, tidy up the room, go to the mess hall, pick the corner table closest to the wall, drink half his energon, walk back to his quarters, and finish the rest of the cube while he worked on reports and the likes. Skywarp used this knowledge to his advantage, skillfully avoiding the Seeker at every turn. He'd shy away from Thundercracker's gaze when the two happened to be in the same room and abruptly cut off conversations before much could be said. Some distance ought to put a brake on their escalating relationship. Maybe it wasn't the most thought out of Skywarp's plans, but as long as it suited his current needs, it was good enough. Act now, think later. Right now, Thundercracker should just be tidying up his quarters, which is why Skywarp sat, lounged out on Astrotrain's couch, sipping his energon cube from morning rations.

"I'm gonna hit one of those squishies' military base later, use some 'a the jets they send after me as target practice. You up for comin'?" Astrotrain asked. He sat on the couch adjacent to Skywarp, legs spread, and absently flicking through the channels.

"Nah," replied Skywarp, "I think I'm gonna go grab some recharge while Thundercracker's stuck at monitor duty." He took another sip of his cube.

"A'right, but you still joinin' me an' Blitzwing for drinks tonight?"

"Pit yeah I am," Skywarp said, giving Astrotrain a companionable slap on the back.

The shuttle gave up on the television, settling for some sci fi movie about some year that already passed, tossing the remote nosily onto the table. He leaned back against the couch, stretching out even more. "That's what I like to hear," he said with a sigh. "'S like the old Warp is finally back."

"That's right, I'm a free mech. All that gettin' tied down stuff was never for me anyway. Didn't realize how serious things had gotten with Thundercracker until you set me straight."

"Just watchin' out for ya."

Skywarp finished off his cube, lobbing it at the trash bin in the corner, missing, and hitting the floor instead. "Well, I think it's time I get going. I wanna grab somethin' in my quarters real quick. See ya tonight."

Wake up one hour before his shift, tidy up the room, go to the mess hall, pick the corner table closest to the wall, drink half his energon, walk back to his quarters, finish the rest of the cube while he worked on reports, yes, Skywarp knew Thundercracker's routine well, but every so often the Seeker deviated from his path. Sometimes his shift ended a few minutes early, sometimes he got bogged down with a few extra reports, sometimes he took the whole cube back to his quarters insetad of drinking half in the mess hall, and just that little change was enough to throw everything off balance. What should have been a Thundercracker-free hallway was suddenly filled with a mass of blue and black jet, leaving Skywarp to scarmble to the side and out of the way.

"Skywarp?" Thundercracker asked, his brow creased. "I haven't seen you in days, where have you been?"

Skywarp reached a servo up, scratching his nose. "Oh, uh, nowhere in particular, just been out a lot, flying, drinking, relaxing in the rec. room, stuff like that." He shrugged, inching away.

"Really? For _days_ at a time?"

"No, no, I've been back in our quarters. You just always seem to be out." Skywarp glanced over his shoulder and then back at Thundercracker. "I was just heading there now, actually."

"Well, you're heading the wrong way now."

"Yeah, changed my processor." Skywarp gave a forced laugh. "Turns out I already had what I needed."

Thundercracker narrowed his optics skeptically. "And what, just out of curiosity, was that?"

The purple Seeker suddenly scowled, crossing his servos. "Hey c'mon, what's up with you? I don't have time to be tested like this, I got places to go today." He tried to turn and rush around the corner, but a strong servo gripped his arm before he could so much as look away. It roughly shoved him back, pinning him between the wall and Thudnercracker's ruffled frame.

"What's going on with _you_ , Skywarp? You're barely around, you avoid looking at me when we're together, and you duck out of conversations with me as soon as you can. What's gotten into you?"

"It's nothin'. You're just imaginin' things."

"You're doing it right now."

Skywarp's optics snapped up from the floor to look at Thundercracker, but only for a moment before they started wandering again. The servo loosened on Skywarp's arm, and, although Skywarp's optics were focused elsewhere, Thundercracker's accusing gaze softened. "You know you can tell me if something happened. What is it? Did you break something of mine again?"

"No, it's nothin' like that, TC-" he caught himself, "Thundercracker. I just think we should be spending more time with other mechas."

"Other mechas?"

Skywarp rubbed the back of his neck, raising his optics to peer at Thundercracker through his ducked helm. "Yeah, ya know? Like, we were spendin' a lot of time together lately. I thought maybe we could use some time apart. ...Nothin' personal."

The servo dropped from the purple Seeker's side, Thundercracker masking his face before any response could be read. "Alright," he said evenly, "if that's what you want."

Skywarp opened his mouth to say more, but couldn't make anything meaningful come out. The silence stretched on.

"I should go," Thundercracker said finally. "Monitor duty starts in a couple of minutes."

* * *

Technically the two Seekers were never together in the first place. Close? Sure, but they were trinemates, they were _supposed_ to be close. Oddly enough, though, the conversation with Thundercracker felt somewhat freeing to Skywarp. For weeks he jumped from berth to berth, outrageously flirting with any mecha he deemed worthy, without fear of any repercussions or guilty afterthoughts. It was a great couple of weeks, to say the least, until the bitter after taste kicked in, and he started noticing Thundercracker again.

The blue Seeker wasn't nearly as outgoing as Skywarp when it came to flirting. A little helm nod there, a wing flutter there, not anything too noticeable; Thundercracker had one of the more subtle techniques of flirting. It was other mechas that had a much more optic-catching technique, and catch optic it did. Without a possessive purple Seeker to ward them off, mechas took their crack at the blue jet. Stoic as he was, he was still a Seeker, and not many mecha could resist a chance at their frame. They'd whistle and catcall and offer drinks, all the while sneaking smug smirks at the seething purple Seeker. Today's contender was a certain Insecticon leader who stood, bent over, resting a servo on Thundercracker's table in the mess hall.

It shouldn't have bothered Skywarp. It was his plan to spend time with other mechas in the first place. It was a good plan too. He liked the plan. He was just getting worked up for nothing. The feeling would pass. He just had to tune them out. Yeah, that was it, he did that all the time with Starscream. The purple Seeker turned his back on his trinemate across the hall, coolly taking a sip of his energon cube.

"Come on, _on_ ," a voice drifted through the room, "surely you're not spending the night all by yourself, _yourself_. "

"Actually, yes, Shrapnel," Thundercracker said impatiently, "believe it or not, I _do_ plan on spending the night alone."

"Well, I can provide you with some entertainment, _entertainment_. It will be delicious fun, _fun_." The Insecticon took a seat next to the Seeker, overtly brushing Thundercracker's chassis as he went. The blue jet only pushed him away, flaring his wings out to keep the distance. Skywarp twitched his wings, taking another, larger gulp.

"I can entertain myself," Thundercracker said curtly.

"Oh, a tasty thing like yourself shouldn't have to resort to that, _that_!" the bug chattered, snapping his pincers unattractively.

"Even if this was a 'last resort,' as you're implying, I would still prefer solitude over the company of you and your nest."

"So cruel, _cruel_. There's need to act so bitter, just give it a shot. I'd love to get a taste of your chassis, _chassis_ ," Shrapnel purred. "Mmm, I can already taste the electrons from here, _here_."

A loud clank turned the helms of every mecha in the room. Skywarp abandoned his table, along with the mess of energon he spilled, and stalked towards the corner. He grabbed Shrapnel by the pincer, pulling him backwards, denta bared threatningly.

"Actually," the purple Seeker said pointedly, "Thundercracker _does_ have plans tonight."

"What's this? A two for one deal tonight?" Shrapnel asked.

Skywarp growled and clasped a servo on the blue jet's shoulder, leaving Shrapnel feeling confused and cheated as thin air replaced the Seekers. The two reappeared in their shared quarters, Thundercracker stumbling to catch his balance. He opened his mouth to demand Skywarp explain just what the frag was going on, but his trinemate took his words, pressing his lips to Thundercracker's. His servos immediately found white hips, that tentatively pushed back against him. Skywarp whined, flushing against Thundercracker's frame, sensors igniting and spark pulsing in a familiar and long-awaited way, his whole plan blown to bits in that instant. All those weeks of carefully planning his schedule, ducking around corners, and recharging at odd hours crumbled to nothing, but the thought didn't occur to Skywarp now. He could feel the grind of Thundercracker's hips, feel the heat radiating off his frame, feel his vents on his neck, even feel his spark spin in his cockpit, and Skywarp acted on _that._  Act now, think later.


	13. Day Thirteen- Eating Ice Cream

Thundercracker's dim shadow contorted oddly around the angle of his chair and onto the floor. The small glow from his datapad kept his workspace illuminated as he typed figures and summaries into his report, and a stack of unfinished datapads sat, waiting for him off to the side.

  
The bad news was it wasn't a good week for the Decepticons, and when it wasn't a good week for the Decepticons, it wasn't a good week for Megatron, and when it wasn't a good week for Megatron, it wasn't a good week for anyone. Sure their raids failed before, but this one failed catastrophically, literally blowing up in their faces. Took ages to get the chips and dents out of everyone's frames, but Megatron still carried a chip on his shoulder from the loss, which meant Thundercracker was stuck filling out report after report for an increasingly nitpicky warlord.

  
The good news, on the other servo, was that things seemed to return to normal between Thundercracker and Skywarp. No more long stretches of the Seeker's absence, no more rushed conversations, no more averted optic gaze. The two fell into their old routine as easily as the two fell into sync walking down the hall. The bad news, though, because the universe was rarely so kind as to break even with Thundercracker, was that this meant the pestering started again. 'Let's go flying!' 'C'mon, I said let's go flying!' 'I'm bored, TC.' 'Fine, how about we get a drink instead?' 'Just a quick one?' "I'll let you have one of my shuttlegrade cubes?' 'Wait, you don't like those.' 'Okay, forget that.' 'But we gotta do _something_ , I can't just sit here all day!' 'You've been hunched over that desk so long!' 'A break would help you focus, you know.' 'You can't possibly work that long!' 'You take all those reports way too seriously!' And, of course, the imfamous, 'Lighten up already!'

  
Eventually the purple Seeker did succumb, though, and sulked out the room, off to stir up trouble elsewhere. The quiet finally allowed Thundercracker some time to work. Without an anxious Seekerlet hovering over his shoulder he breezed through reports. He might even finish them in time to actually get a decent amount of recharge that night. Wouldn't that be a nice change?

  
But, because the universe was rarely so kind, it had other plans.

  
_-swish-_

  
"Heya, TC! Thought you could use some company."

  
The blue Seeker sighed, lowering his datapad and watched his trinemate bounce into the room. "Actually, I was perfectly fine by myself."

  
"Great to see you too!" Skywarp bounded over, taking his usual seat on the edge of Thundercracker's desk, cheerily ignoring the Seeker's comment. "How're those reports comin'? You close to finishin'?"

  
"Quite well, actually. I only have a few more to go, and I'd like to finish as soon as I can, so if you could-"

  
"Great! You'll be done in no time."

  
Thundercracker cleared his vocalizer. "So if you could leave me to that," he said pointedly.

  
"Tryin' to kick me out already? Is that anyway to treat someone who brought you back a snack?" Skywarp popped a frozen, foggy cube out of his subspace, setting it smack on Thundercracker's datapad, effectively pinning it to the desk.

  
"What's this?" Thundercracker asked, running a digit down the cube, wiping away a trail of condensation. "Frozen energon?"

  
"Not quite, it's ice cream!" Skywarp beamed, looking expectantly to Thundercracker for his reaction. The blue Seeker just frowned, looking warily at the cube, then back to Skywarp. "Not the _human_ kind," Skywarp sighed, "it's the treat we used to have back on Cybertron. Those vendors would push little hover carts above the ground and sell 'em? Seekers in brightly colored paints would give them away on special holidays? Remember?"

  
_There_ was the smile Skywarp was looking for. "Yes, I remember that. I haven't had one of those since before the war." He picked up the cube, turning it over nostalgically, before stopping. Narrowed optics slowly raising, he looked to Skywarp suspiciously. "Just where did you get this?"

  
Skywarp made a show of tossing his helm back and rolling his optics. "C'mon, TC, do you gotta ruin everything? Don't worry about where I got it."

  
"I'm not going to have to pay for this later, am I?" Thundercracker asked doubtfully. "An angry mecha isn't going to come bursting in here and demand compensation for their cube that 'mysteriously' went missing while you were over? An alert's not going to go out, stating that vital supplies were stolen from the kitchen last night?"

  
"Stop frettin' over everything and just drink the fraggin' thing," Skywarp persisted, but Thundercracker firmly held his gaze until Skywarp gave in with an theatrical sigh. "Alright, alright, _I_ made it, happy?"

  
" _You_?"

  
"Don't sound so surprised. I'm a pretty good cook, you know," the purple Seeker huffed, crossing his arms, then added in a mumble, "Even if it _is_ pretty much just frozen energon."

  
Thundercracker turned back to the cube, satisfied. He cracked it open, eyeing the contents. The texture was bumpier and icier than he remembered, but now was not the time for second thoughts. He could see Skywarp watching him out of the corner of his optic, trying not to look too interested. He rose the cube to his lips, taking a sip, and a smile grew on Skywarp's faceplates, mirroring his own.

  
"This is... actually pretty good, Warp." It wasn't what he had back home, but the sweet taste was a welcome change and, at the very least, reminiscent of the Cybertronian treat. He took another sip, the ice cream providing a frigid rush to his frame.

  
Skywarp smirked, putting on a smug facade. "Of course it is, I made it, after all~" He bounced on the desk excitedly, rattling some datapads and supplies that Thundercracker covered protectively. "So," he bubbled, completely ruining his act, "guess this calls for a break, huh? Can't properly enjoy your treat while you're distracted by reports."

  
Thundercracker ducked his helm and chuckled to himself. "Alright, I suppose it does."

  
"Great," Skywarp hopped off the desk and made for the couch, tugging his trinemate along after him, "'cause I totally have this great movie picked out."

  
Thundercracker obediently followed along, bringing his cube with him. He sat, shoulder brushing his trinemate's, sipping his treat sentimentally, and settled back to watch the show, whatever it was. The universe was rarely so kind as it was that night, and Thundercracker was gonna enjoy while he could.


	14. Day Fourteen- Genderswapped (Changed to "Frame-Type Swapped")

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got around to making some changes to this one. I didn't like how I described femmes vs mechs and how I made using "femme" replacement parts to temporarily patch Skywarp up seem like some disaster. I think I fixed all the problems with that, but I may have missed something so you can let me know if I did. Sorry about that guys, that wasn't cool. Now, instead of the "genderswapped" theme (which I don't really think even works for Cybertronians anymore...) it's more of a "Frame-Type Swap" theme, which I think is a works better.
> 
> Now that I've done that, maybe I can pump out a few more chapters and finally finish this thing, since Valentine's Day is coming up. That is, if I can make myself reread my old writing so I can remember where I was trying to go with these things in the first place. And, ya know, if there's actually people interested in the last ten chapters.

Thundercracker sat at a console in the command center, typing away a log of the day's activity: how many energon cubes collected, how many expended, how many soldiers injured, slag like that. He pinched his wings up, shifting in his hard, unyielding chair. It was a slow night, only a few mechas left buzzing about the ship. The day's raid was a success and most retired to their quarters, having nothing left to prepare for. 

Beside Thundercracker sat his trineleader, carelessly spinning a blaster rifle on his digit, optics casually monitoring his screen. His console fuzzed to life, static clearing to display an image of Shockwave, standing perfectly straight and erect, as always. He slumped and glowered, as much as the mech could, anyway, when he caught sight of the Seeker.

"Starscream," Shockwave intoned, "I requested to speak to Megatron."

  
"Megatron is busy," came the uninterested reply, Starscream's optics lazily spinning round and round with his blaster. "You'll have to answer to me."

  
Shockwave puffed up, proud, and projected his voice. "I only answer to Megatron," he boomed.

  
"And _I_ am Megatron's second in command, meaning I am your commanding officer, Shockwave. You will answer to me as well."

  
"I have urgent news only a leader as competent as Megatron can handle."

  
Starscream bristled at the implication, grabbing his rifle to loosely wield it in his servo, waving it at the screen. "Hah, 'urgent news'?" he scoffed. "Last time you called with 'urgent news' it was because your miserable aim lost you a few dozen energon cubes to those femmes."

  
"The femmes-"

  
"Caught you off guard," Starscream interrupted, "were completely unpredictable, were actually decent shots, can actually handle themselves in battle. Yes yes, Shockwave, we've heard it all before."

  
"Megatron must hear this news immediately," he persisted. "It's pertaining to Cybertron."

  
"Is Cybertron reviving as we speak?"

  
"No."

  
"Is it completely subjugated by the Autobots?"

  
"No."

  
"Then no one wants to hear your 'news.' Go back to playing solder and maybe I'll notify you when the war's over."

  
" _Starscream_ -"

  
The screen blinked to blackness and Starscream reclined in his chair, once again absently spinning the rifle around his digit.

  
"Megatron won't be pleased if Shockwave actually had some vital news to convey," Thundercracker said, glancing up from his log.

  
"Pah! When has Shockwave ever called with 'vital news'?'" Starscream flicked his free servo dismissively. "He only fusses over pointless details. I'm merely saving time."

  
"He will call again, you know. He refuses to stop until his report is relayed directly to Megatron."

  
"Of _course_ I know that, Thundercracker. I don't need you to remind me, but I could use the entertainment, these monitor shifts are processor-numbingly dull." The Seeker yawned, emphasizing the point.

  
A ping interrupted them, echoing around the ship.

  
"Thundercracker, report to the medbay," a voice chimed over the intercom. "Thundercracker, report to the medbay."

Another ping, and things returned to silence.

  
Thundercracker rose, bidding his trineleader farewell, receiving a brief servo wave from the other. Stepping out the door and onto the lift, he turned back in time to see Starscream's monitor alight with static again, and a wicked smirk cross the Seeker's lips.

  
It was a lonely walk to the medbay, the hall devoid of any mechas. Most 'bots had already been in and outta the medbay since their latest raid. Thundercracker himself had skipped out on the trip, reporting no injuries from the mission. Sure he had a few scratches here and there, but they were hardly worrying. Besides, a trip to the medbay wasn't what most would call 'pleasant.' Hook was the designated medic, but that in now way made him a good one. Though, what the mech wanted with Thundercracker at this time of the night was beyond the Seeker.

  
 _-crash-_

  
"You slagger! Look what you did to my frame!"

  
Oh.

  
 _There_ , it was.

  
Thundercracker picked up his pace, jogging the rest of the way to the medbay. The doors hissed open upon his arrival, proudly displaying the disaster inside. On one side of the room stood his trinemate, frame sporting a few odd dings and scratches, armed with a wrench in one servo and a dormant blow torch in the other, lobbing them both across the room. On the other side of the wrenches and blow torches stood Hook, ducked behind one of the beds, dodging all the flying equipment, scooping them up, and flinging them square back at the Seeker in some sort of absurd game of catch.

  
Thundercracker bowed out of the way of a stray piece of scrap metal that went flying his way, pressing himself flat against the wall to avoid any collateral damage. Scrapper waited, bent over on the other side of the room, impatiently waving the Seeker over. The blue Seeker inched his way there.

  
"About time you got here," Scrapper hissed, shamelessly using the Seeker as a shield. "Go and get your malfunction of a trinemate under control," he ordered, wasting no time.

  
"Me?" Thundercracker questioned. He put his servos on his hips, frowning down at the Constructicon. "As our official medic, shouldn't _Hook_ be the one dealing with this?"

  
"Yes, technically, but you can see how seriously he's taking matters." Scrapper gestured to the miniature battle being waged across the room. A clank and a creative string of curses wafted over from the medic as if to prove his point.

  
"And what about Starscream?" Thundercracker pressed. "You didn't think to call him down here? He is our trineleader after all."

  
"What, and have him use those null rays? Believe me, I thought of that, but it was enough trouble patching Skywarp up _once_."

  
Thundercracker sighed. The mech made a good point. If Starscream got involved, the purple Seeker would either end up unconscious on the floor or with singed wings and a very bad temper. Either way, responsibility would inevitably fall back on Thundercracker to pry _those two_ apart instead, and Starscream was much harder to deter than Hook.

  
Thundercracker took an invent, mentally bracing himself to step between the two bickering sparklings. He took a tentative step forward. "Warp?" he ventured.

  
No reply came from the purple Seeker, but he did spit a venomous, "Change my frame back right now you Pit-spawned fragger," at Hook.

  
"Warp," Thundercracker tried a bit more forcefully, but it still didn't earn him so much as a glance.

The blue Seeker grit his denta, wings flicking irritably. It was time to stop their little squabble. He pushed his shoulders back, flared his wings out, and marched into the battle with long, calculated strides. "Skywarp," he barked, grabbing the Seeker's arm before he could launch yet another wrench at the fuming Contructicon.

  
The purple Seeker jolted against his grip. "What the Pit?" He turned around. "TC? What the frag're you doin'?"

  
"I could ask you the same question. Care to explain why I was pulled away from my logs to come and pacify you in the medbay?" Skywarp jerked against Thundercracker's servo again, glared when the Seeker refused to release him, and begrudgingly lowered his arm to the side. Hook, peeked out, and, deeming the area safe, dashed out from behind his cover.

  
"I'll tell ya why. Because this ingrate has some wires loose up here," Hook said, tapping his helm, " He blew a fuze after I patched him up. Not even a thank you for fixin' him, just a wrench in my faceplates."

  
"A thank you?" Skywarp practically screeched, "For what? Makin' me look like a mismatched freak?"

  
"You should be thankful I even patched you up at all with that attitude!" Hook retorted.

  
"Can you even call the mangling you gave me 'patching me up'? I've seen better welding work done by a blind turbo fox!"

  
Thundercrack stepped between the two before they started swapping more than just insults, holding his palms up to both mechs. "Hold on, hold on. Skywarp," he turned to his trinemate, "just what are you talking about? What happened?"

  
"What _happened_? You mean you haven't noticed yet? Just _look_ at what he did to my frame." The purple Seeker gestured down his body, raising his optic ridges in an incredulous look. "That fragger said he needed to remove some of my armor to repair it, and then gave me these," he gestured wordlessly at his body "slimmed down, skeleton of parts to replace 'em! What am I, some sparkling?" His optics narrowed, shooting a sharp glare at Hook. "Yeah, outta spare parts for my frame type, my aft. I know you've got some here!"

  
"Well, maybe if you didn't go around bustin' my spare parts all the time I wouldn'ta run out!"

  
"How is it my fault you're a lousy medic? I look like some fragged up puzzle because of you!"

  
"At least all of your parts are purple this time," Scrapper called from the corner, snickering at the growl it earned him from Skywarp.

  
"Alright," Thundercracker broke in, "I'm sure it's not nearly as bad as you think, Skywarp. Let me see." He pulled the Seeker's shoulder, nudging him until he faced him fully. Skywarp held out his servos, optics ridges raised expectantly, waiting for a reaction.

  
Thundercracker's optics went up and down his trinemate's frame. Large, bulky shoulders lead down to a softer, rounder chest piece, which flowed down to defined, sharp hips, ending with his pedes, one boxy, one curvey. Now, Thundercracker met some tiny bots in his time, but the parts melded onto Skywarp took that to a whole new level. There was sleek frames, there was slim frames, and then there was these replacement parts, and mashed together, side-by- side like this with Skywarp's parts, the differences became glaringly obvious. The different armor types meshed together awkwardly, as if the two wanted nothing to do with the other.

  
"I told you I looked ridiculous," SKywarp said, pulling Thundercracker's staring optics back to his face.

  
"It doesn't look that odd," Thundercracker lied.

  
"You're smirkin' at it right now."

  
The blue Seeker cleared his vocalizer, quickly wiping the grin off his faceplates. He lowered his optics ridges, replacing the look with something more sympathetic. "Look, Warp, there's nothing to be done about your frame now. All we can do is wait until your armor is repaired and come back then." He offered a servo, beckoning his trinemate towards the door.

  
"Oh _frag_ no," Skywarp said, taking a step back. "I ain't leaving until this glitch fixes my frame!"

  
"I'm not fixin' anything for you, dimspark!" Hook hollered.

  
Thundercracker rubbed his helm as the two spat insults and accusations back and forth, ready to derail back into their old fight. They arched towards each, barring denta, flaring wings, and clenching fists threateningly.

  
"Oh honestly, you two are acting ridiculous," Thundercracker groaned, his voice lost under the din of their argument. Scrapper swiped a few potential weapons off the floor, retreating to his corner, where he voiced his agreement with Thundercracker, only adding to the incoherent rumble of the room. Skywarp's voice rose, along with his fist. Hook grabbed a beaker, his climbing volume matching Skywarp's. Their pedes shuffled on the floor. They advanced on each other, ignoring any efforts made by the blue Seeker. Both tensed, ready to go for each other's throat at the drop of a dime.

  
In the midst of everything a ping sounded, bringing the room's commotion to a grinding halt. Scrapper stood in his corner, partially ducked behind one of the bed's curtain's for cover; Thundercracker stood, one servo restraining Skywarp by his shoulder, the other held out defensively towards Hook; Hook stood on one side of the room, servo wound up and ready to a release a beaker at the purple Seeker; and Skywarp stood, servo frozen on its collision course with the medic's helm. They all froze, listening to the message.

  
"All Class A soldiers report to the meeting hall," the intercom chimed. "All Class A soldiers report to the meeting hall. Emergency meeting required."

  
And with that, the intercom cut out with another ping, leaving the room in tense silence. The mechs remained frozen, optics flitting from one to the other. It was Thundercracker who first broke the silence. "That's us, Skywarp," he said, "Elite Trine. We have to go."

  
The purple Seeker didn't move, stiffly holding his position above Hook. His optics narrowed on the Constructicon, digits tightening. His optics flicked up, meeting Thundercracker's challengingly. The two stood, locked optics. Thundercracker slowly shook his helm, and _wam_ , the servo came down. 

"Useless slab of gear, change me back!" A burnt out muffler went flying, a mallet, a screwdriver.

"I can't until your parts are repaired, piston head!" A cracked datapad, an empty screw box, all the loose screws.

"Don't lie to me, you-" the purple Seeker yelped, jumping up in surprise and pain. A servo mercilessly twisted his wing tip, yanking him backwards. 

"In case you didn't hear," Thundercrackwe growled, measuring his words, "we're needed in the meeting hall."

"I can't go up there lookin' like-" A powerful rev of engines drowned out the last of Skywarp's words. "TC, I-" Another engine rev, this time accompanied by a servo tightening on his wing. Skywarp winced, looking back and forth between Hook and Thundercracker. Finally, he sighed. "Fine," he grumbled, "let's go to the meeting." He slumped and followed behind his triumphant trinemate, stopping at the door to turn and glower at Hook. "Don't think I'm done with you, though," he snarled, and disappeared into the hall.

 


	15. Day Fifteen- In a Different Clothing Style

"Excellent," Shockwave greeted as the Seekers exited the space bridge, stepping out into the sterile metal of the Cybertronian base. "That should be everyone." The mech folded his arms behind his back, walking with easy, confident steps as he surveyed the provided soldiers. In front stood Starscream, shoulders squared and optics shuttered boredly. To his right stood Thundercracker, with Skywarp lingering on his left. Behind them waited the Coneheads in a similar fashion.

  
"Now, given that this is a mission of stealth and one of the utmost importance," Shockwave's single optic lingered on Starscream. The Seeker in turn stiffly flared his wings, flashing his denta at the mech. "I feel you should temporarily adopt your former Cybertronian alt-modes while here," Shockwave continued, coolly brushing past the Seeker.

  
Skywarp leaned back, subtly reaching across to poke Thundercracker's side. The blue Seeker twitched, but stared resolutely ahead. Skywarp tried again, this time adding a slight cough to his routine, but it only earned him the same result. He blew a puff of air out of his vents in frustration, setting up for another jab, but this time Thundercracker's wing swatted the servo away before it could reach him. The tactician finally spared his trinemate a glance out of the corner of his optic, raising his optic ridge, silently waiting.

  
"Hey, TC," Skywarp whispered, angling his helm back and covering his mouth, "what's up with Screamer an' Shockwave? Screamer looks like he's tryin' to drill a hole in his helm with those glares."

  
"Oh that." Thundercracker rolled his optics. "Just ignore it, Starscream's acting like a sparkling." Said sparkling twitched his wings, shooting Thundercracker a glare over his shoulder.

  
"He really needs to accept when he's wrong," Thundercracker said, raising his voice and matching his trineleader's look.

  
"Hah, please, that'll happen when turbofoxes fly," Ramjet piped up from the back, followed by snickers from him and his trine.

  
Shockwave loudly cleared his vocalizer, drawing the attention of all the Seekers. "As I was saying," he said pointedly, "I already have the scans of your previous alt-modes, the tetrajets, set up. Assuming you made no major frame changes while on Earth, everything should work fine." Shockwave paused, casting a look up and down Skywarp and his mismatched femme and mech armor. "...for _most_ of you, anyway," he added, earning himself a pout and an indignant  puff of wings from the Seeker. Again, snickering bubbled up from the Coneheads.

  
In the end, the mission was a cakewalk. The 'urgent business' on Cybertron Shockwave reported turned out only to be a stray band of Autobots, stirring up trouble bigger than they could handle. It didn't take long for the Seekers to neutralize them and their antics, though, Dirge did take a few stings to his wing. 'Lucky hits,' he called them.  
With the mission ending as fast as it did, that left everyone with some free time before they were due back on Earth. Skywarp bounced on his pedes at the news, looking to Thundercracker excitedly. "Let's go look around, just for a sec!"

  
Thundercracker hesitated. "Alright," he said.

  
"C'moooon, it'll be-" Skywarp caught himself and blinked. "Wait, did you say yes? That's seriously all it took?" He squinted at his trinemate suspiciously, eyeing him up and down. "You _are_ Thundercracker, right?"

  
The blue Seeker rolled his optics. "Stop talking, and let's go before I change my processor."

  
Skywarp's face light up like Iacon at night. He made the motion of zipping his mouth, but still bounced giddily as he transformed, leaping up into the sky, closely followed by Thundercracker.

  
The two Seekers climbed higher until the ground meshed together into an indistinct mass of dark shapes. Here and there little lights twinkled on the surface, but they were few and far between. They naturally fell into trine formation, Thundercracker slightly in front, with Skywarp just to his left, though, they flew a bit closer than standard trine formation called for. For a while they flew without conversation, the purple Seeker trying to stay silent, but it wasn't long before Thundercracker's command was forgotten, and he bubbled over with excitement.

  
Skywarp opened a comm. line so the two could talk and fly simultaneously. ::It's nice being back on Cybertron,:: he said. ::I missed it.::

  
::Yeah,:: Thundercracker agreed, ::I did too.::

  
::Almost feels like it did back before the war.::

  
::Almost.:: If the Seeker closed his optics, he could almost imagine it _was_ before the war, but little details pricked up and ruined the illusion. There was no buzz of life coming from the planet, there was no energy running through the sky, there was no place to be. Instead, the air felt stale and stuffy, and the night was silent and empty, there was nowhere down there waiting for them.

  
::Hey, remember when we used to fly that old obstacle course back at the Academy?:: Skywarp asked. ::Used to have bets runnin' on how many rookies would get caught up on their first turn.:: He snickered.

  
Thundercracker grinned to himself. ::Yes, I remember that. The Seekers always dominated that exercise.::

  
:: _I_ always dominated it,:: Skywarp corrected, smoothly flying in an arch over Thundercracker. ::No one even came close to my time.::

  
Thundercracker scoffed. ::No, _I_ dominated the course, _you_ cheated. You almost got banned from the track.::

  
::Hey, I was just, what is it, utilizing my assets.:: He teleported, reappearing with a _'_ pop' and purple mist back on the left side of Thundercracker. ::Not _my_ fault no one could keep up with this~:: He swooped and swerved smugly, and Thundercracker just internally rolled his optics.

  
A silence fell between the two before Skywarp spoke up again. ::You think that old thing's still standin'?::

  
::No. I doubt there's much left of the Academy at all.::

  
::Yeah, you're probably right,:: Skywarp said quietly, a sigh to his voice. ::I'd rather fly out in the open air anyway.:: He performed a little twirl, swinging up out of his disappointment. ::And it's fraggin' nice being back in our old alt-modes. Though, it's stiffer than I remember. Maybe I just got too used to that Earth one.::

  
::Or maybe it's because you're half femme right now.::

  
::Shut the frag up,:: Skywarp said, jokingly veering towards his trinemate so he had to swoop out of the way.

  
::Alright, alright,:: Thundercracker conceded, ::I'll stop, but I'm not deleting those pictures.:: He chuckled, ducking out of the way of another attack from his trinemate.

  
::Fraggin' aft,:: Skywarp grumbled, somehow managing to pout even in jet-mode.

  
::Come on,:: said Thundercracker, playfully swooping back at the Seeker, ::let's keep going. Maybe we can check by the Academy before we need to head back.::

::Yeah.:: Skywarp grinned to himself. ::Sounds like a plan.::

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New alt-mode = new clothing style? Yes? Yes.


	16. Day Sixteen- During Their Morning Ritual(s)

Skywarp pulled tightly around the corner, his tetrajet form gliding sleekly through the Cybertronian sky. He swooped down, easily avoiding yet another obstacle, the tip of his wing gliding just out of reach of the wall. He looked down and smirked at the group of gawking, rookie fliers as he progressed through the obstacle course with ease. He danced around the tight corners, veered up and over the walls, and even added a little roll at the end, just for some pizzazz.

::Skywarp,:: Thundercracker's voice cracked through the comm.

::Hey, TC!:: Skywarp said cheerily. ::Come to watch the show? Where are you?:: Skywarp scanned the crowd of passing students.

:: _Skywarp_.:: The Seeker's voice sounded large and echoey, bouncing around in his helm oddly. Skywarp transformed and landed, tapping on his helm a few times, frowning.

::Uh, TC? Everythin' okay? You sound kinda weird.::

:: _Skywarp!_ ::

The purple Seeker jolted in his berth, optics flying open. Slowly his vision focused revealing faded purple walls, a few cluttered shelves, and a neatly organized desk. He groaned, realizing where he was and dropped his helm back onto the berth. Rolling over and squeezing his optics shut, he tried to drift back into the blissful state of unconsciousness. Vaguely he could still hear Thundercracker's voice nagging at him.

::Yeah yeah, 'm here,:: he grumbled groggily. ::What is it?::

::You have patrol duty today.::

::Yeah, I know, and?:: He asked, scooching up into a sitting position.

::And you're due there _soon_.::

::Yeah, I _know_. What? You didn't think I could handle getting up by myself?:: The purple Seeker sounded offended, shooting the empty air a pout of insulted disbelief.

::Well, _did_ you? Were you up already?::

Skywarp's faceplates flushed slightly. ::...Sorta? I mean I was gonna, but I...:: He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

::I thought so.::

Skywarp huffed out a vent of air moodily, crossing his arms. Thundercracker was right. Just like he was right when he told Skywarp not the construct that paint bomb in their academy quarters. Just like he was right when he told Skywarp it was a bad idea to commandeer the PA system to announce Starscream was pissy because of his science boyfriend. And just like he was right when he told Skywarp to set an alarm this morning for patrol. Why the frag was the Seeker always right?

::You're wrong, you know,:: Skywarp said. ::I was totally gonna get up soon.::

::Your patrol duty starts in _ten minutes_.::

::I still have time!::

Skywarp could practically hear Thundercracker shaking his helm on the other line. ::You recharged through morning rations. I left your cube on my desk.:: The purple Seeker looked up, and, sure enough, there sat the cube. He swung his pedes over the berth, and trudged his way to the energon, cracking it open and taking a sip, the cool liquid breaking through his morning fog.

::Tastes weird,:: Skywarp idly commented.

::The ones made from coal power always taste strange.::

Skywarp swirled the liquid around, flopping into Thundercracker's chair. Frowning at his cube, as he took another experimental sip. ::Nah, it doesn't taste like that. It tastes weird-weird, ya know?::

Thundercracker sighed from the other line. ::Listen, Warp, I need to go. I still have logs to finish before I drop them off to Megatron.::

::You _always_ have somethin' you gotta do. C'mon, let's skip all that report and duty slag today!:: The purple Seeker said, reclining against the chair, swinging his pedes onto the desk, and tucking one arm behind his helm, the other still feeding himself sips of energon. ::Let's go and do somethin' fun! Maybe we can find a thudnerstorm somewhere.::

::You know I can't do that, Skywarp.::

::Can't you excuse yourself for a couple minutes or somethin'? I was just about to head to the washracks, actually.:: Skywarp's voice dropped down to a purr, transfering as much of his suggestive smirk into his voice as he could. ::Maybe you could join me down there?::

Silence came from the other line and Skywarp seized the opportunity to press onward. ::Could use someone to get my wings for me,:: he continued in his silky voice, drawing a small noise from the other line. Oh, he had the Seeker now. ::Maybe I could get yours too? Run my digits along their underside, trail up and along their edge, dip into their seams, press my cockpit on your back... wouldya say?::

::Warp I... It's just-:: Thundercracker stopped to reset his vocalizer. Skywarp smirked to himself, smug at reducing the normally cool and composed Seeker to a stumbling glossa-tied mess in just a few sentences. But Thundercracker did eventually regain control of his voice and answered seriously, ::I can't do that. These logs are urgent.::

The purple Seeker's face immediately dropped into a pout. He swept his pedes off the desk, picking a stain on the wall to direct his defiant glare at.

::But,:: Thundercracker's voice tentatively broke through the comm. line, ::I am free later.:: His voice dropped an octave, adding a rumble Skywarp could feel from their quarters. ::But it'll be _my_ digits digging into _your_  wings, my cockpit grinding into you, my vents puffing on your neck, my panel on your back.::

Skywarp shuttered his optics, voicing his approval through the comm. via a quiet moan.

::Now get to patrol duty. You're due there _now._ ::

Skywarp slid out of the chair, finishing off the cube. ::Yeah yeah, I'm goin',:: he said, sauntering out the room, his flushed faceplates smirking all the while.


	17. Day Seventeen- Spooning

The sliding doors swished open, admitting a stumbling, snickering Skywarp to the quarters. One servo blindly felt around for the light, blinking as a dull yellow suddenly illuminated the room. In the berth lied his trinemate, bent up on one side, leaving enough space for an additional Seeker, opposite the lone window, of course. Skywarp always faced the window.

The purple Seeker took one last swig of his highgrade cube and haphazardly tossed it to the side, not bothering to look where it went. The cube, ever the menace, took the most noisy route to the ground possibly, clattering to the floor with a terrific clash, clang, and bang.

"Oh _frag_ ," Skywarp muttered, scrambling after the cube. Setting it upright, he nervously glanced to the berth, sighing in relief when the blue Seeker's shadowed form stirred, but remained in recharge.

Shuffling over to the couch, Skywarp plopped down and flicked through the channels. He hesitated a moment, then propped his pedes up on the table with a wicked little grin. No one there to stop him this time, or lecture him about the improperness of it, or kick his pedes to the ground. He snickered childishly at the freedom. A fleck of uncertainty, though, pulled his optics to the berth, but his trinemate remained motionless. Well, almost motionless. Skywarp could pinpoint all the Seeker's little twitches and movements: the little creases in his brow, the restless flick of his wings, the tight flex of his servo. Something must be nagging at the mech.

Skywarp shrugged it off, probably just him disturbing Thundercracker's recharge. He lowered the volume on the television and settled into the show. A few minutes passed, but he couldn't stop his gaze from wandering back towards the berth. Thundercracker's tense position remained the same. Skywarp bit his lip, switched off the TV, and made for the berth. Half way there he stopped short, shooting a guilty glance over his shoulder. He looked to the berth, the warm, inviting, restive berth that held his trinemate, then back to the table, his helm flicking back and forth. With a defeated sigh, he trudged back, brushing the dirt and grime from his pedes off the table.

He spun around again, but another problem broke his stride. The lights. He left the lights on.

_Berth, warmth, Thundercracker...._

He glared reproachfully at the wall, scrunching up his face, _willing_ the lights to go out themselves. They didn't. He dug out a few odd screws and scraps from his subspace and pelted the wall with them in a vain attempt to hit the switch from there. Instead, they only accomplished putting a few scratches on the wall and making a mess on the ground. Skywarp sighed a deeper, more sorrowful sigh and dragged himself to the light switch, punching it off.

He turned and made it all of two steps before he stopped again, the mess of screws and scraps reeling the Seeker back in like an over-sized fishing pole. This time Skywarp spun on his heel, annoyance fueling his steps. He squicly scooped up the mess and tossed most of it in the trash bin, the rest missed and went pittering to the floor, but the Seeker couldn't be bothered to care right now.

He cast a threatening glance at the ceiling, challenging Primus to put one more obstacle in his way. The god must have taken pity on the mech because finally, _finally_ , he made it to the berth. Crawling in next to his trinemate, he scooched himself closer until their cockpits clinked together. Despite the consuming darkness, Skywarp's servo found Thundercracker's wing as naturally as flying, a few soft strokes stalling their restless twitching. Dropping his arm, he wound it around the blue Seeker's waist, purring as he pulled his trinemate closer, the other servo resting gently on his chest. His helm nuzzled Thundercracker, finding a familiar nook under his chin, and he could feel the blue Seeker's frame relax in his arms. With a content sigh, Skywarp offlined his optics, letting the comforting heat from Thundercracker's frame, the steady rhythm of his vents, and the faint presence of his spark lull him into undisturbed recharge.


	18. Day Eighteen- Doing Something Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to rate this chapter "Teen" just to be safe, due to touching and kissing. There's nothing explicit in this chapter, though.

A thruster roughly dug into Thundercracker's side, the Seeker letting out a grunt of discomfort as the heel nailed him right in the fuel tanks. He looked up from his datapad to cast an icey glare at his trinemate. Skywarp, of course, didn't even bat an optic, far too engrossed in a datapad of his own.

Skywarp sat, stretched out horizontally across the couch, his pedes resting in (or rather, attacking) Thundercracker's lap. The purple Seeker's glossa stuck out in concentration, violently turning his datapad this way and that. A generic explosion sounded from the datapad and Skywarp cursed under his breath, shifting to get in a better position for his game. In his squirming around, his pedes scrapped and clipped Thudnercracker's armor, one pede sending the datapad flying out of the blue Seeker's servos and clattering to the ground. Skywarp barely glanced up. "Oops," he said distractedly, "my bad."

Thundercracker took a steadying invent, wing twitching irritably. "Skywarp could you _please_  get your pedes off me?"

"What? But, TC... frag frag _frag!_ " he trailed off into a string of swears, frantically shaking the datapad. Another crash sounded, and he finally lowered the game to look at Thundercracker, armed with puppy-dog optics and pitiful drooping wings. "But you said I couldn't put them on the table. I was just doing what you wanted... right?"

The blue Seeker just rolled his optics, shoving Skywarp's pedes to floor. "Keep them down  _there_." He gave his trinemate a pointed look. " _Okay?_ "

"Yeah yeah, okay, jeez." He held up his servos defensively, and Thundercracker gave an approving nod.

"What is that you're working on anyway?" Skywarp craned his neck, peering over Thundercracker's shoulder. "You _still_ workin' on those reports?"

"Actually, I took a break from those, this is a game. And _yes_ , I am Thundercracker," he added before Skywarp could jump in with a sarcastic comment. He swiveled, holding the datapad so both could see. "It's called Sudoku. It's a human game, I know, but it's not half bad. Much better than those... _other_ squishie games, anyway," he said, casting a disdainful glance at Skywarp's datapad.

"Looks more like math than a game to me," Skywarp concluded, flopping back against the couch disinterestedly.

"I find it quite enjoyable, relaxing even," Thundercracker said, typing in a few more numbers.

Skywarp shrugged and retreated back to his own game, where things made sense. Numbers and patterns? Sounded like more work to him. But action and competition? Now _that's_ enjoyable. He grinned, eagerly folding his pedes up underneath himself, ignoring the look from his trinemate. His screen flashed, counting down to his next round, and he hunched over, ready to kick some automated-aft, but, instead of zipping past the competition, he paused. Peeking up at Thundercracker, a slow, infamous smirk spread on his facepleates.

"Soooooo, how does this Sodoku thing work?"

Thundercracker was almost startled at the question, looking up to find a friendly purple Seeker practically hanging over his arm. "It's _Su_ doku," he corrected, "and I thought you weren't interested."

Skywarp shrugged. "I changed my processor."

Thundercracker narrowed it optics doubtfully. "Alright," he said, hesitantly, "look here and I'll show you. The board standardly comes in a nine-by-nine box," he swiped the screen, bringing up the image, "like this." The purple Seeker nodded. "Each board is split up into nine smaller squares of..." He twitched his wings, suddenly finding a servo trailing around their edges. "...of three-by-three.

"In every smaller box you need to fit the numbers one through nine, but you can only use each number once." Skywarp edged closer, one leg now draped over Thundercracker. "The same rule appl-" Thundercracker coughed, unconvincingly covering up the sharp gasp at the servo now running up and down his thighs and ghosting over his hips. "The same rule," he started again, "applies to all rows and columns. The numbers one through nine may only be used once."

The blue Seeker could feel Skywarp's vents on his neck by now. Clearing his vocalizer, he pushed on. "The goal of the game is to..." He tapered off, a pair of soft lips working their up Thundercracker's neck and along his jaw, stopping just on the edge of his mouth. Gritting his denta, he suppressed the shudder working up inside him, but he couldn't stop the slight waver in his voice when he said, "...t-to fill in all the boxes without breaking any of the rules.

"This is just a standard board, though. Normally, I... A servo brushed down his cockpit. "...I find such a board too..." Digits tweaked his wing tip. "...t-too simple, so I..." Lips pressed to the back of his neck. "...so I..." Denta nipped at the base of his wings. " _Frag_ ," Thundercracker said breathlessly.

"So you frag, huh?" Skywarp hummed, grinding as close to his trinemate as he could, trying to fit their frames together like some sort of puzzle piece. "Now _this_ sounds like a game I can play." He smirked, lips still hovering teasingly over the blue Seeker's wings.

"You know that's not what I meant." Thundercracker shuttered his optics, biting back the moan as a glossa played inside his seams. "You f-fragger, I wasn't done with this game."

"Well, I have a much more interesting game to play." Skywarp leaned into the the blue Seeker's audial with a deliciously devious purr. "Wanna play?"

Thundercracker invented, scrunching his optics closed. He dropped the datapad, sending it clattering to the ground and freeing his servos to hungrily roam Skywarp's frame. The purple Seeker smirked, looked like a 'yes' to him.


	19. Day Nineteen- In Formal Wear

Skywarp tossed one last piece of scrap over his shoulder, it landing on the ever-climbing pile of junk, towering in the corner. That was his "To Take Care of Later" pile, AKA his "That Looks Like A Problem for Future-Warp" pile.

  
A familiar, metallic clattering echoed around the room, and Skywarp sighed, dragging a servo down his face. Spinning around, he grudgingly scooped up all the pieces of the collapsed pile, once again arranging them into a precarious pyramid shape.

  
"Fraggin' Thundercracker," Skywarp grumbled to himself as he worked. "Told 'im a million times this wasn't my fault. I mean, how would _I_ know the thing was gonna explode in my quarters?" He set off into a string of mumbled curses and grievances.

  
The only reason the purple Seeker was even doing this was to appease his nagging trinemate, always dangling the threat of his trashed quarters over his helm. Every since that practical-joke-gone-wrong, Skywarp's room was unusable, and Thundercracker made sure he remembered it.

  
"' _Oh_ no, you're not borrowing _my_ datatpads," Skywarp mimicked, swinging his shoulders around haughtily. "'Obviously you don't know how to properly take care of your belongings.' 'Are you _sure_ you want to skip out on patrol duty? Megatron might come looking for you, and it would be unfortunate if he got directed to the wrong quarters.' 'Clean up that mess, I will _not_ let you destroy my quarters too.'" Skywarp grimaced. "Tch, well, Megatron can't punish me for my quarters if there isn't any evidence. And maybe TC will back the frag off already."

  
Skywarp scooped the last bit up, finally getting the pile together. Servos held out defensively and optics narrowed threateningly, he slowly backed away. The junk pile must have gotten the message because, despite a few loose scraps that pittered to the floor, it stayed put.

  
Spinning around, he put his servos on his hips, ready to tackle the next mess in his room, and stopped. Everything was clean, well, as clean as Skywarp's quarters ever got. No more dents in the furniture, no more paint splattered on the walls, no more malfunctioning computer consoles, no more collapsed berth frame, no more unfinished datapads-- actually, strike that, he still had those. His quarters were livable again.

  
The Seeker blinked, servos hanging awkwardly at his sides, almost at a loss of what to do now. He optics slowly gravitated to a few lonely, barren shelves. Frowning, he pawed through the heir contents, then pawed through them a second time.

  
Something wasn't right. Where was his favorite album? Where were his movies? Where were his games? _Where was his Starscream blackmail?_

  
Then it hit him.

  
Thundercracker's quarter's.

  
Of course, half his things were still scattered about in there. All he had to do is collect his slag, and then he could move back into home-sweet-home.

  
Skywarp shuffled his pedes, spark surging uncomfortably at the thought. Suddenly, all his other business seemed much more pressing, demanding attention in his processor. His quarters were just another problem for future-Warp to deal with, there was a paused video game to attend to back in Thundercracker' quarters.

  
Stepping out of his own room and into that of his shared quarters, the sticky smell of paint immediately hit his sensors, but before he could comment, Thundercracker grasped his shoulder, sitting him down on the berth. All along the broad, blue frame were drying stripes of shimmering yellow and deep black. They criss-crossed up and down his wings and drew nostalgic patterns along his faceplates. Some swept up with his contours, long and sharp, others were smooth and short in odd designs.

  
No... not quite.

  
Looking closer, the designs where more than just curves, but words, spelled out in ancient Vosnian writing, one Skywarp had long ago tucked away in the unused portion of his memory banks.

  
"It's time to get ready," Thundercracker informed him. Turning Skywarp's cheek to the side, Thundercracker dipped his digit in a tick, black paint, and swept a cool streak down his trinemate's face.

  
"What?" Skywarp asked. "What're you talkin' about, TC? And what's with your frame? You look like you're goin' to a funeral or somethin'." He squirmed, trying to get a better look, but Thundercracker just grabbed his chin, holding it in place.

  
"Stay still, Skywarp," he ordered, "you're going to smudge your paint."

  
The purple Seeker pouted but did as told, still restlessly flicking his wings.

  
"And I am going to a funeral," Thundercracker continued, "so are you."

  
"Huh?" Skywarp looked up, only to have his helm twisted back in place.

  
The purple Seeker's spark constricted, and his frame went tense as the words sunk in. "Wait, really? Someone got offlined?" He kept his helm still, but nervous optics flicked up to Thundercracker.

  
"Yes, I just received word from Starscream." Skywarp shuttered his optics and let out a quiet exvent. "According to him, a general-level Seeker stationed near Praxus was recently put offline in battle."

  
"But we don't know any Seekers stationed there. Why're we goin'?"

  
"No, not personally. This one did, however, hold a fairly high political position back in Vos." Thundercracker paused his painting to raise an optic ridge. "Updraft, remember?"

  
Skywarp nodded. "Oh yeah! The one with those flashy, orange stripes? I remember them. They were a pretty bulky mecha, knew how to have a good time too. Only talked to them a servoful of times, but they were fun."

  
"You two _were_ strikingly similar."

  
"You know they used to room down the hall from me for a while? Frag, the mecha could shoot, not surprised they made general."

  
"Nor am I." Thundercracker renewed his painting, nudging Skywarp's helm to get the opposite cheek. "With their rank, and with our traditions, Megatron granted the Seekers here leave to attend a service for them."

  
"No way. You mean, like, a real Seeker funeral? With the transportation and the lights and the fly over? The whole shebang?"

  
"Well, Starscream was left in charge of planning the ceremony."

  
"So _maybe_."

  
"Maybe."

  
Thundercracker spun Skywarp around, applying black and gold paint down the Seeker's wings that mimicked the design on is own. Vosnian script scrawled neatly down them and over his Decepticon symbol, expressing the remembrance of the lost Seeker on one wing and wishes for their safe passage to the afterlife on the other. The paint trailed lower, leaving its mark down his hips and over the entirety of Skywarp's frame.

  
"I'm surprised they're gone," Skywarp said, breaking the silence. "Outta everyone, I thought for sure they'd make it."

  
"I don't find it all that unexpected."

  
"What happened to them?"

  
"A sneak attack on a near-by Autobot camp. Apparently there were more enemies than anticipated. A shot through the wing brought them down, and a single one through the spark chamber extinguished them."

  
Skywarp shook his helm. "Slag."

  
"It was a mistake on their part. Their haste led to this."

  
Warp twisted around, furrowing his brow and wings slicking back. "C'mon, TC, they were a good mecha, don't be so cold."

  
Thundercracker just silently motioned Skywarp to his pedes. Spinning the purple Seeker around, he examined his work.

  
"What? There somethin' wrong with it?" Skywarp asked at his trinemate's frown.

  
"No." Thundercracker cleared his vocalizer, wiping his faceplates into a neutral expression. "No," he repeated. Briefly, he looked over Skywarp again, gaze lingering on the Seeker's cockpit. Dipping his digit into the gold paint, he swiped one last character onto the amber glass, one Skywarp recognized was the symbol for protection in times of danger. He looked up, opening his mouth to talk.

  
"Come on," Thundercracker interrupted, "Starscream must be waiting for us by now."


	20. Day Twenty- Dancing

 

::Oh for Primus' sake, must you look so pleased with yourself?::

  
::You can't even see my face!::

  
::And somehow you still manage to look insufferably smug.::

  
The purple jet flared his ailerons in a shrug. ::I don't know _what_ you're talkin' about, TC,:: Skywarp said, gliding through the air, his blue trinemate next to him.

  
::Please, you can't even say that and fly straight. Look at you, you're drifting.::

  
Sure enough, Skywarp was slowly creeping towards the right. With an awkward cough of his engines, he rapidly swooped towards and away from his trinemate, trying to play it off as a playful gesture, but Thundercracker was having none of that. Veering sharply in, he cut off Skywarp's maneuver, throwing him off balancing and sending him back with a slight wobble.

  
::Fine,:: Skywarp huffed, steadying himself, ::so maybe I am, but pulling you away from your desk is a pretty big feat, ya know.::

  
Thundercracker scoffed, ::That's not true.::

  
::Hah, you kiddin'? Yes it is! I would never see ya if I didn't drag you out like this. You're practically welded to your chair!::

  
::Warp, we _share_ quarters, you see me everyday.::

  
::Yeah, but I actually go out an' _do_ things.::

  
::I do things too.::

  
Skywarp actually laughed out loud, engines rumbling in amusement and veering just slightly off path. Gasping a few invents through his chortling, he composed himself. ::Please, TC, the last time you went out for fun Cybertron was still in orbit. You know you're- hey, where're you goin'?!:: He banked sharply to the side, adding a boost to his engines to catch up with his retreating trinemate. ::Oh c'mon, TC. You gotta admit you don't go out that often. Which is why you need _me_ to remind you how to do fun slag like this.::

  
Briefly cutting off his engines, the purple jet dropped, gliding forward on his momentum, belly sharply cutting through the atmosphere below. In less than a second he reignited his power, swooping under Thundercracker in a smooth arc and reappearing on the other side of his trinemate. ::You're lucky you have me here~ Now c'mon, you ready?:: With a challenging rev of his engines, Skywarp shot forward in a burst of speed.

  
::I'm not sure 'lucky' is the word for it.,:: Thundercracker muttered. Hanging back, he allowed his trinemate to gain some distance, image hazed by cloud cover. Time ticked by, and the purple outline of Skywarp grew smaller and more indistinct. The mist camouflaged Skywarp's form so it was almost indistinguishable, and that's when Thundercracker shot into full power, engines roaring to life with a crack and shaking the sky in a rumbling display of power.

  
Clouds and dark streaks of blue sky blurred past, and within seconds he overcame his trinemate. As blue stabilizers brushed past a purple nose cone, Thundercracker turned, climbing steeply upward.

  
::Primus, I could feel that shockwave from here. You know you didn't need your sonic power for this.:: Skywarp grinned to himself. ::You're such a slaggin' showoff:: Kicking in his afterburners, he trailed after his trinemate, lagging just a wingspan behind.

  
The two jets rushed upwards, white mist hugging down their frames and obscuring their vision, until suddenly it cleared, leaving the two jets in clear, unadulterated skies. The clouds shrunk below them and the sky open up in a navy dome, splotched with a few stray stars, poking out through the blanket of space.

  
The wind, howling and thrumming in their sensors, slowed and quieted to a dim whisper and then to silence. Simultaneously, both Seekers cut out their engines. A moment of tranquil stillness hung over them as they lingered motionless in the air, and then they dropped, the stars blurring into streaking lines of yellow and white.

  
They fell in a soft arch, twisting their frames in perfectly synchronized turns. Allowing gravity to do the work, the plummeted down, cutting back into the clouds like a corkscrew.  
Reengaging their engines, the two pulled up from their dive. Copying his trinemte's move from before, Thundercracker swept under Skywarp, and Skywarp repeated the gestured, the jets rapidly rotating in helix.

  
Slowing their pace, they dropped into standard trine formation, cruising forward quietly.

  
::Do you remember how it ends?:: Thundercrackered asked.

  
::Heh, like I'd forget _that_.::

  
With that, Skywarp slowed and Thundercracker sped forward. His blue frame grew dimmer with the darkening sky until he whipped back around. And that was Skywarp's cue. The two Seekers engaged full thrust, rushing head on into the other. The distance between them rapidly diminished, but neither Seeker wavered. When not even a scraplet could fit between their nosecones, the two Seekers turned up, their undersidesghosting past each other as they went.

  
Again they climbed. Wing tips just poking over the cloud cover, they swung backwards, falling down and away from each other in a wide circle. Orientating themselves, they flew back towards the other, crissing-crossing paths, Thundercracker taking the high route, and Skywarp the low one. Dragging wisps of cloud with them as they crossed, they knitted a blanket in the sky. Slowly, their roads converged and the two fell back into formation, calmly bobbing through the night.

  
Silently, they flew side by side for a moment, air still and sky quiet, before Skywarp spoke up. ::You remember how the next dance goes?::

Thundercracker grinned to himself. ::Like I'd forget that.::

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, jeez, it's been a long time since I started this... I'd hate to leave this thing unfinished, so I might add a few more chapters if the inspiration hits, or if anyone seems interested in reading the conclusion to this thing. 
> 
> If not, though, then maybe I'll move on to some rad qpr stuff.


End file.
